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Raspberry Smoothie Recipe

Made this with things I could find in my kitchen, it was pretty good! Blended together:

  • Handful of frozen or fresh raspberries
  • 1 banana
  • Approx. 150ml orange juice
  • Dash of turmeric
  • Dash of cinnamon

Just realised the photo looks a bit like the “Super Flower Blood Moon” that happened yesterday 🙂 Unfortunately couldn’t see it until just after the eclipse, but was still exciting!

1min Okutama Stream Meditation

Here is a 1min stream meditation, created near Kori station in Okutama, Japan.

  • Start the video or audio, sit with a straight back, your chin slightly pulled in, relax your shoulders and close your eyes (or lie down if too tired!).
  • Relax and slow down your breathing.
  • Listen to the stream, each time you notice your mind has wandered, gently go back to listening to the river.

Download Audio File

Vegan Simnel Cake Recipe


This cake is based on the usual teacake recipe I use and quite forgiving so you can mix and match ingredients if you don’t have everything!

Ingredients

For the marzipan
180g ground almonds
140g brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp water

For the cake
300g dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, etc.)
260ml hot tea (about one mug of tea)
40ml juice and grated peel of 1 orange
1 banana (optional)
Handful chopped apricots (optional)
250g wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
100g brown sugar
1 tbsp apricot jam

Directions
  1. Make the marzipan by mixing together all the ingredients in a blender, squeeze into a ball and cover put in an airtight container in the fridge.
  2. Place the dried fruit in a bowl and pour over the hot tea, orange juice and grated peel. Cover and leave for at least 3 hrs or overnight. (A)
  3. Preheat the oven to 170C, grease a 20cm or bigger round cake tin. If you use a 20cm tin, there will be enough mix left over for a small teacake 🙂
  4. Roll out the marzipan and use the cake tin as a template to cut two marzipan circles about 1/2 cm thick
  5. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices into a bowl. (B)
  6. Add the chopped apricots, sugar and squeeze the banana through your fingers into to A (raisin mix).
  7. Add B (flour mix) to A and carefully stir in. If the mixture is dry add a little water, tea or soya milk.
  8. Put half of the mixture in the cake tin, smooth over and add a circle of marzipan. Cover the marzipan with the remaining mixture and level out the surface.
  9. Bake for approx. 1 hour 20 mins, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. If it looks like the top will burn, cover with foil.
  10. Leave to cool in the tin for about 10min, then turn out and cool on a rack.
  11. Once cooled, spread the top with apricot jam and press on a marzipan circle. Decorate with 12 marzipan balls and/or anything else you like! If you have marzipan left over you can make small balls and roll them in cocoa powder to make little treats.


Marzipan recipe based on:
https://elavegan.com/homemade-marzipan-recipe/ 😊🙏

London

During the Summer of 2019, I was sitting in Hanushka Coffee House on George St in Hastings with Dan (we call it the “book cafe” and they do amazing lattes and paninis and have shelves of books you can read) and was looking through one of their books with a page about Batemans (Jacobean house owned by Rudyard Kipling) and noticed this quote and liked it so much wrote it down on something I had to hand –

God gives all men all earth to love,
But, since man’s heart is small,
Ordains for each one spot shall prove
Beloved over all.

From “Sussex” by Rudyard Kipling

Later I noticed I had noted it down on a London Tube map and thought it was rather fitting – despite that I may not live there again and thinking that I prefer the countryside and seaside, perhaps London is my beloved over all ❤︎

Which spot of earth is beloved over all for you?

2min Okutama River Meditation

Here is a 2min river meditation, created in Okutama, Japan.

  • Start the video or audio, sit with a straight back, your chin slightly pulled in, relax your shoulders and close your eyes (or lie down if too tired!).
  • Relax and slow down your breathing.
  • Listen to the river, each time you notice your mind has wandered, gently go back to listening to the river.

Download Audio File

Breakfast Smoothie Recipe

Am trying Veganuary this month and made this smoothie for breakfast out of ingredients I found in our kitchen, it was really good! Here’s the recipe:

Blend all these ingredients together with a mixer or blender (serves one):

Large handful or frozen mango
Handful of frozen blueberries
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 tsp chia seeds
tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
150ml approx of hot water (to help melt the frozen fruit)

Colour Pencils

Been wanting to use some colour pencils that need sharpening for a while. They are chunkier than the standard size, I had a large size pencil sharpener for them but it got broken when the bag it was in got caught in my bicycle wheel when I was cycling to a yoga lesson through Toyama park and I hadn’t got around to getting a new one. This morning while removing flash cards from a yoga anatomy colouring book I suddenly and joyfully realized I could sharpen them with Dan’s penknife!

This pose is Janu Sirsasana – head to knee pose – a forward bend to help gently look forward to the coming year, yet still holding 2020 – a year that has stretched many of us beyond what we can bear.

Vegan Teacake

This is a yummy, relatively healthy teacake I make quite often. Recommend it with a cup of tea!

Ingredients

300g dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, etc.)
260ml hot tea (about one mug of tea)
40ml juice and grated peel of 1 orange
250g wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
100g brown sugar
3 tsp brown sugar for topping (1 tsp per cake)
45g chopped hazelnuts (15g per cake)


Directions

  1. Place the dried fruit in a bowl and pour over the hot tea, orange juice and grated peel. Cover and leave for at least 3 hrs or overnight. (A)
  2. Preheat the oven to 180C, grease 2 small loaf tins and line with baking sheets.
  3. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. (B)
  4. Add the sugar to A (raisin mix).
  5. Add B (flour mix) to A and carefully stir in.
  6. Divide the mixture evenly into the tins and smooth over the surface with the back of a spoon or spatula.
  7. Sprinkle all over with sugar and chopped hazelnuts.
  8. Bake for approx. 40min, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. If it looks like the top will burn, cover with foil.
  9. Leave to cool in the tin for about 10min, then turn out and cool on a rack.

CAKE VARIATIONS

  • No orange (may need to add a bit more tea or plant-based milk if mix is too dry)
  • No cinnamon
  • Add ½ tsp ginger and/or ½ tsp allspice
  • Add 50g coconut oil (For step 4. Beat the coconut oil and sugar together, add this to the raisin mix A and then stir in the flour mix B)


TIN VARIATIONS

Tins – 1, 2 or 3
(baking time approximately 1hr for 1 tin, 40min for 2 tins and 30min for 3 tins


TOPPING VARIATIONS

  • Walnuts, pecans or almonds instead of hazelnuts
  • No sugar
  • No nuts
  • No topping
  • Dust with icing sugar to make a Christmassy one!

Based on these recipes 🙂

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11608/fruity-teacake
https://www.yumsome.com/bit-of-the-good-stuffs-vegan-old-fashioned-english-tea-loaf