A Medieval Affair

This weekend I went to the Abbey Medieval Banquet.  It’s a night where you can immerse yourself in medieval culture.  As a lover of all things historical I totally feel completely at ease and at my element in dressing up.

I mean I was named after a princess after all…

I love the long flowy dresses of that time and the camaraderie of sitting down at a long banquet table sharing a meal with friends and meeting new ones.

Life as a medieval person definitely wasn’t easy but in the midst of their lives there are lessons that can be learnt and applied today.

Here are four ideas I observed as I enjoyed the festivities:

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Well what a busy week it has been.  It has been full of reporting, planning, studying and meetings.

Today’s recipe is from the website Amazing Paleo.

I love this recipe because not only does it taste amazeballs but it includes raspberries.

As most of you know by now I have MTHFR which means I need the activated form of folate (NOT FOLIC ACID).  Folate naturally can be found in raspberries so I’ve been eating them by the punnet!

Another great way is to eat them in the form of these amazing raw chocolate and raspberry bars.  You will not be disappointed.

First of all I had to make my own almond butter as I ran out. Easy enough done in my Thermomix.

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

GUILTY PLEASURES

We all have our guilty pleasures. Mine just so happens to be watching “Winners and Losers.” David and I rarely watch T.V but this is something I watch each week but because it’s on a Tuesday night and we run a Lounge Group (Bible study/fellowship/random topics/prayer/encouragement group), I catch it up on the Channel 7 app on my iPad. For those of you unfamiliar with the show it’s about a group of four best friends who are bound together by their experience of being the ‘losers’ in high school. It’s their journey through breakups, stalkers, death, babies and all this after they’ve won Oz Lotto.

Anyways the point being I was watching the season return and if you watch it on the app they still give you the pleasure of ad viewing. (more…)

“The wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings. Let food be your medicine.” 

Hippocrates

NOURISH YOUR INSIDES

As you know I love cooking sweets.  This week however, I thought it would be nice to give you this lovely nourishing wintery stew. This one is from a book I purchased called “Eat Fat be Lean” by Dr Nat Kringoudis and Andi Lew.  I absolutely love this book. I love being educated about nutrition and then being provided with easy recipes that nourish my insides. I am not an affiliate link but I do lovingly endorse this book.  You can purchase it here.

Sadly this fad of “Fat Free” living can have detrimental effects on our bodies.  According to Kringoudis and Lew:

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AWAKENED TO LEARN

Well it was back to work full time this week. It was a nice ease in being a four day week thanks to the Queen’s Birthday Holiday on the Monday.

The Monday night before school started I had a case of insomnia.  This tends to happen when I’m a bit anxious about something. I felt a little lost coming so late into the school term after missing essentially 6 weeks of content. How was I going to catch up on all my work? How would I get all my marking done? How was I going to write my comments on time?  And all of this in between scheduled physio appointments for rehabilitation of my knee and studying for my Naturopathy/Nutrition/Life Coaching Course.

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CONQUERING THE SUGAR CRAVINGS

Last week I mentioned to my naturopath that since the injury and therefore my lack of exercise I had now developed an insatiable need for sugar. She discussed with me some ideas to help curb these cravings. As a result I ended up with this coconut goji chocolate recipe.  In it are a few items that help to cure the sugar cravings:

Cacao: Contains nutrients such as magnesium, iron and chromium.  Chromium is important for balancing blood sugar.

Coconut Oil: Delivers quick energy to your body and doesn’t produce an insulin spike which is good news for those of us craving sugar.

Goji Berries: Full of vitamins B1, B2, B6, C, and E.  According to Superfood Blog ‘organic goji berries are rated just 29 on the Gylcaemic Index which means they both satisfy hunger and actively reduce sugar cravings.’

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Since my hockey accident  I have been made more aware of things that I have taken for granted.

Recently I signed up to participate in the “Beautiful You Life Coaching Academy” and as part of the enrollment we had to write down the activities we love doing. My list included exercise related hobbies in particular hockey, crossfit and gym. For nearly two months now I haven’t been able to walk to my front door properly let alone go to the gym. I haven’t been able to drive or even get out onto my back porch because of the step down which has been difficult. It’s interesting how much of our identity is tied up in the things that we do.

Today I’d love to go through some things I think we take for granted. See if you can identify yourself in any of these points.

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PALEO KEY LIME PIE

This week’s recipe comes from a recipe card I picked up at “Primal Pantry” at Teneriffe here in Brisbane.  It’s super easy to make and tasty. It’s the perfect pie to share with a friend this long weekend.  I made this in my Thermomix but you could easily do it in your food processor.

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This week I found out that one of my relatives had been bullied all through primary school, high school and then even into his workplace. This ended up with a severe cry out for help and a mental health breakdown. I was infuriated. Who couldn’t love hanging out with him? Why didn’t I know? What could I have done to help?

As someone all too familiar with the struggles of anxiety and depression my heart went out to him. I literally cried after I saw him dosed up on medications trying to cope. This catalyst of events eventually became just too much. It’s been in the media a lot lately with high profile people like Charlotte Dawson and L’Wren Scott taking their own lives.  Yet there still seems to be a stigma attached to depression and anxiety and people need to be educated about it.

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