Sunflower Seed Truffles

Searching for new recipes on pinterest I discovered a food blog that promotes other food blogs and discovered this great recipe for a peanut butter cookie.  It was a flourless recipe, but the batter was so dense, it didn't make sense to me, so I added some flour.  I also thought it looked sweet enough and skipped the rolling in sugar and spices.  I used sunflower seed butter, which has been our home's substitute for peamut butter for years now.  they sell ot at trader joes, and its delicious!  They turned out so dense and delicious I decided they deserved the beautiful distinction of truffle instead of cookie.

1 cup Sunflower Seed butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup flour
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Mix it all up, roll into balls and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Advice for Raising your Energy!

So here's my advice on transitioning from low-energy to high-energy. I think what you eat is more important than what you do, so although you asked me about activity, I'm starting my advice with food.

1. Keep a food journal for at least two weeks. Write down every single thing that you consume all day long, try not to leave anything out. When we can be honest with ourselves about what we are actually eating, we can begin to make positive changes. Once you've kept your food journal for awhile, you can start to look it over and notice where your patterns or weaknesses are and make positive plans to help prevent your mistakes.

2. Begin with one meal at a time and try to make improvements on the quality of your nutrition. Breakfast is a great place to start. If you can get that one meal right, you can set a positive tone for the rest of your day. I recommend fresh fruit smoothies, vegetable juice, home made oatmeal (not the instant kind), an egg with a side of steamed spinach, brown rice and some salad.

3. Begin with one weakness at a time and try to make some improvements. Don't over do it, or your body will revolt. Maybe you drink soda, start but cutting your portion sizes in half. Maybe your portion sizes at meals are too big, try using a smaller plate. Do you eat junk food with your kids, maybe you can have more healthy snacks readily available like chopped veggies. It will take awhile for your taste buds to get used to different flavors, so give yourself time.

4. Try to eliminate packaged food and fast food. Avoid diet foods and fat free foods and try to eat natural whole foods instead. Diet soda is not better than real soda, its worse! All this stuff is full of salt, chemicals and not a lot of nutrition. They make your body swell up, clinging to every calorie in the hopes of finding some nutrition.

5. Drink lots of water! First thing in the morning have a big glass of warm water with half a lemon squeezed in it. Before each meal drink a glass of water, this will help you eat less.

As for activity, I recommend walking. Walk anywhere you can. Is it possible to walk your kids to school? Can you walk to the store and carry your groceries home? Start with small amounts and increase your time as you feel up to it. Try to be active in different ways throughout the day. Wash your car, pick some weeds, make some bread from scratch. As far as stretching and getting limber, just do it! Put some music on, roll around on the floor and just put your body in different shapes. If you need inspiration of course there is tons of stuff on the internet and probably some free classes in your community you can find, but I don't have any specific recommendations on this.

You can read this post I wrote on yoga for some ideas. And you can read this post for lots of healthy food ideas from a 30 day cleanse I did last fall. And read this post to learn about an educational movie that will get you motivated to eat healthy.

Good luck, and let me know how you-re doing!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies with Horchata Ice Cream

Last week I posted a favorite brownie recipe I've made now a few times and decided to include it in a family dinner but with a twist.  I have been experimenting this week with nut and rice milks and one of my dinner guests had been over earlier in the week and really liked my horchata, a mexican rice milk.   So I thought I;d try giving the horchata a whirl in my vintage ice cream maker.  It was a success!  For the brownies I changed my original recipe only slightly, substituting half the chocolate with mexican chocolate, reducing the sugar and slightly increasing the flour.  In San Diego it is very easy to find the mexican chocolate used to make a traditional hot chocolate drink.  This chocolate usually comes in round bars and has sugar and spices such as cinnamon.  I purchased mine at trader joes.  Common brands are Ibarra and Abuelita.  For the horchata ice cream I simply ran one batch of my horchata in my ice cream maker.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies

2 ounces of dark chocolate
2 ounces of mexican chocolate
1 stick of butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour

Het over to 350' and prepare 8x8 baking pan by greasing and flouring or lining with parchment paper (I love parchment paper).  In double boiler (a smaller pot in a larger pot of warm water) melt chocolate and butter, stirring occasioanlly until smooth.  Do not overheat.  Once smooth, cool slightly and then beat together with sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Gently stir in flour.  Pour your batter in to prepared baking tin and bake for 10-20 minutes until you can insert a butter knife and no batter remains when you remove the knife.

Horchata Ice Cream

1 cup of rinsed basmati rice
4 cups of water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Soak rice in water for 12-24 hours.  Blend on high for several minutes and then strain, discarding the pule.  Blend again adding the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt.  Place this in your ice cream maker.  The resulting treat will be more similar to a water based gelato or sorbet.

Brownies...a great way to eat Chocolate!

I have used this recipe a bunch of times now.  The brownies are chewy and delicious!

3 ounces dark chocolate
1 stick of butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup flour

Melt the chocolate and butter together.  I use a very small pot placed in a larger pot of warm water.  Beat together melted chocolate and sugar then add in eggs one at a time and vanilla.  Combine flour and salt and add this to the batter.  Pour into a greased 8"x8" pan, I line mine with parchment paper.  Bake at 350 for 20-30 minute.  Try not to eat them all at once!

Waffles are Easy!

I've been having so much fun with my Pizzelle Cookie Iron that I have become inspired to dust off my Waffle Iron.  I have the thinner, round form.  It's one of the many kitchen items that I have inherited in my husband's well-established kitchen.  I looked on-line for a recipe but made some substitutions and cut the quantities in half for a breakfast for two.

1 egg
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup horchata (rice milk)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk together egg, sugar, and milks.  Mix together flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together the flour mixture and the egg mixture.  Bake in your waffle iron until golden brown and top with butter, jam, maple syrup, fresh fruit or even whip cream!

A New Name

I changed the name of my blog.  I just wasn't feeling the name "Yogini Robin" anymore.  I started this blog quite a few years ago, but never wrote much.  When I changed my focus from yoga to food, health, gardening and travel the writing began pouring out of me!  So I've changed the name to reflect the true theme.  But I'm open to other suggestions if you have a great idea, but many names are taken so you've got to be creative!

A Visit to Oleta

My blessed, fantasy life continues to evolve with fabulous adventures.  This summer had its share of adventures including three weeks in Europe.  I travelled to London where my husband had an art show!  Then we went to northern Spain for two weeks, driving along the coast from Biarritz to Santander.  There is a remnant of a town in this region, a few of my family members have visited in the past decade.  My father was originally told about the town by a mexican man he was doing investments for.  It is in the Basque Country, a state on the northeast corner of spain.  The Basques have their own culture independent of Spain.  They have a language, Euskadi, commonly spoken today.  The names of most towns and cities in this region are Basque names.  Or if it has a predominant Spanish name, like San Sebastian, it is also known popularly by its basque name, Donostia.  The Basque have also there own traditions, sports, history.  Oleta is the name of the town in Basque, Olaeta is the name of the town in Spanish, and the family story is that our lineage comes from that name, changed over time to a current spelling of Oleata.  As it was located almost directly south of the world-famous super wave, Mundaka, in beautiful countryside, I found it quite simple to feel from this land.  As I got to know the people, see their faces and experience the quirks of their personalities, I kept feeling, Yes!  I am Basque!

The rode to Oleta consisited of meandering through the coastal forests and then travelling deeper inland into the mountain peaks.  We summited a big peak and stopped at a lookout for a picnic lunch.

Oleta was located just a short distance from the summit.  We dropped down about 15 minutes to find the town.  It was a cluster of big stone and brick houses weaving along the road for a few minutes.  They were spaced with big plots of land, grass cut for the fall, horses grazing.  A stream ran across the town at the church and there was a beautiful stone cross.  The town had a restaurant and one sign for cheese for sale.  That was about it.

The view back at the peak from Oleta

The church was closed but it had a very old keyhole, big enough to look inside, that's the view above.  Next to the church was the farmhouse with a small sign out front for cheese for sale.  As we walked around the church, peeking through the gate of the cemetary to read the names inside, I saw a big farmer lady washing big metal canisters for storing milk.  I asked her if she was selling the cheese and told her I'd like some.  She walked us around the property to the front, walking through her garden towards the front of her house.  First we passed a barn and I spied a bunch of chickens.  I asked if I could take a look, but had to be careful as there were about 8 wild hunting dog tied up inside as well.

She left us in the front room of her house while she went deeper inside.  I snapped a couple quick photos of the interesting farm tools on the wall and her little altar/repository of emergency supplies!  I spied a classic photo of a joyful olympian biting down on her medal.  When she returned with the cheese I asked her about it, it was her sister who won bronze at the London Olympics last summer!  I took a photo of the newspaper cover on the wall at the restaurant.  She sold me a half round of her milder sheep's cheese and then I let her get back to work!

At the local bar/restaurant they were cleaning away the dishes from a large family just completing a leisurely lunch.  We got some cold beers at the bar which featured prominently two large jars of honey for sale.  I was beginning to laugh at all my hobbies displayed for me in Oleta, chickens, cheese, gardens, and honey!  I started conversation with the young bartender, asking him if he was form the area.  He laughed and said this was his house and his family owned the restaurant.  I told him why I was visiting and he told me about a Mexican doctor who had passed through the area a few years before for the same reason.  They pulled a topographical map of the area off the wall and showed me another Oleta just north of us on the ocean, just across the river from Mundaka.  Later on our trip we tried to find this town too.  We got very close but couldn't quite find our way.