Coconut Cashew Cookies!! 

So this recipe (if i can even call it that) was so quick and easy and i was very pleasantly surprised when it actually came out well when i just threw stuff together.

So firstly the reason that i made these was that this morning i was running out nut milk and decided that since i dont want to buy an more since i leave for London on Monday  i thought that i will just make my own. I was short on almonds so make cashew milk.

I took the leftover pulp after making the milk and instead of just drying it out in the oven to make flour then into cookies i thought i would see if it would work if i just started mixing things straight in since the mix was still a little wet.

Recipe:

Note-
So firstly the amount of pulp is from one cup of cashews and 2 cups of filtered water.

From the pulp i added in 1/2 teaspoon each of vanilla and baking powder
2 tablespoons of coconut sugar (once i added that and mixed in i found it was too sweet for me)
So then i added 2 tablespoons of oat flour
Then to finish off to 2/3 tablespoons of toasted coconut flakes (i used pinched fingers so not very accurate sorry!)
Mix again then scoop into small balls and bake for 10 minutes.

Thats it! Told you it was simple i had like 5 of these already!
Hope you make them and if you do please let me know what you think of them.

Thank you all xxx

Kilt Walk

Kilt Walk 

So it feels like forever ago already, but on my mum's birthday, 1st June myself and two best friends got dressed up in some tartan and complete a marathon..No thank god not running but walking! Yes we walked through some beautiful areas of Aberdeenshire. I had completed the Moonwalk back in 2010 and said that i would love to it again as both me and my friend were injured when we did it, but carried on as we had raised money and didnt want to let people down. Years later after travelling and not signing up on time we discovered this year that the kilt walk was happening so we decided to do this instead. Unlike the Moonwalk which starts at midnight in Edinburgh and is all about raising money for breast cancer, the kiltwalk starts at 9 in the morning and is open to all charities. I will post links for both for those that are interested. 

So all dressed up and me with my vegan snacks for the day (my friend Sandra had to have gluten free stuff with her, while Sarah could eat all the treats available at each stop!) There were plenty of stops every 3 or 4 miles which included toilets, water and lots to eat, bananas were always a choice for me but chocolate, donuts, tomato soup, and baked goods were all had to be avoided by me. I knew this would be a problem so I came prepared. Check out my instagram picture to show what I took, it included Pulsin bars found here clif shot blocks here All lovely and with bananas all I needed. The sun was shining all day which was great and made such a difference to moral than doing a walk in the dark!! It also meant that rest stops were easier, even if it was 10 mins while one of us went to the toilet! 

The walk was really enjoyable but tough, the company and sunshine certainly helped. I thought with my knee issues that i would have problems walking all that distance, but in fact i was totally fine, maybe the addition of yoga and sports massages have helped? It wasnt until the next day when my hips and ankles were bothering me despite an eptom salt bath before bed. I made sure i did plenty of yoga stretchy and by Wednesday i was fine enough to even manage a 10km and did it better than the Baker Hughes run! Maybe the long walk helped my running! 

Overall it was a great day to take part in and it was just fantastic to see so many people of all ages taking part to for so many charities. Would sign up again for next year.

Love 

Laura

Race recape and Raw Chocolate Treats


Hi all,

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. It is always my intention to write a post during the week.. technically i have time.. but one thing leads to the other and before I know it the weekend is upon us and i think oh no better write something!

I spent a good chunk of today helping out at my local school's May Faye. I have helped several times before, it gets so busy but its all for the kids and they love it. Hope we have raised lots of money for the school.

Last Sunday i completed a local 10km run. This is the second time i have done this particular one. Last year i did it for a local charity, however this year i just did it for fun. It was my first official race this year. I had secheuled two half marathons earlier in the year, however i was injured for one and the other which i was really looking forward to Edinburgh Rock and Roll was cancelled :(
I have been saying to myself since i came back from traveling that my aim is to get under the one hour mark... it is yet to happen. Im always so close and Sunday was no exception!! Official time was 1 hour 1 minute and 4 seconds!!! On my Garmin i had 1 hour 7 seconds, so incredibly close to the point of being frustrated with myself that i didnt push harder. First half i ran quick for me, as for training again i was only doing 5km the last month, i managed on the day 29mins for it when own practice was about 34/36 minutes. I clearly was pushing that too much to the point of not being able to sustain it. Live and learn. The atmosphere was great regardless and there were hundreds down at the beach enjoying it all. In typical British weather the sun came out after i was home in the afternoon. Regardless it was much more enjoyable knowing as i ran with one of my best friends this year. Next Sunday the two of us plus our other best friend are participating in The Kilt walk which is a full marathon distance. More on that another time though.

Thought id leave you with a recipe just because :)

This was an originally a raw brownie recipe from Mel at The Greengoddesslife her site is here However i found although the recipe was good it didnt hold together as well as i could do. So i added more liquid the second time i made them and they turn out great. Unfortunately that was a few months ago (Before Christmas??) so i cant remember what i put in. Dont worry though i made them again the other week and now have created a new recipe!!

For this particular batch i halved the dry ingredients from the original recipe.

2 cups of pitted dates
2 cups of walnuts or almonds
1/2 cup of raw cacao powder
Half an avocado
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 tablespoons of rice syrup (original recipe is for agave nectar but id ran out)


Chop dates in food processor until fine crumbs.
Add dates slowly until mix begins to stick
Then add the rest of the ingredients

Before placing into a dish to set Mel's recipe calls for adding pumpkin seeds and goji berries. As i was taking this to work i didnt not know how they would go down so i left them out. Due to the extra liquid, the brownies were much softer and fudgey like so in my opinion that's what they are Fudge!!
Delicious
either way you look at it and feel free to add superfood extras.

Enjoy

Pulp Bread

For those who follow my instagram regularly you will know that i often juice a lot, especially since i completed Jason Vale's 5 day juice program i end up with a lot of pulp which i make into bread. Waste not want not in my house!

I started off with Ashley's @neverthehomemaker pulp bread recipe which you can find the original bread .

Each time i made it, it never came out the same, not that i minded as each and every one was yummy. It depended on the pulp to begin with, but then i ran out of other ingredients then i just started playing around with what i had and discovered more tasty recipes from the first one!! So i want to share with you two recipes, the first is more basic the other contains two of my fav ingredients!!

Juice pulp bread

1 1/2 cups of spelt flour
1/4 cup of flax
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 oil
2 cups of vegetable juice pulp
1/2 to 1 cup almond milk

Easy to make just chuck everything into a bowl mix and then into a prepared pan (which i lined with a large muffin liner) or make into muffins. Simples. The mix with less flour will be denser and harder to mix, but don't worry.

Secret sweet pulp bread

All the same ingredients as above but instead....

switch regular oil for coconut and add a banana and a teaspoon of cinnamon!! Sounds crazy but it works! Its like a sweet and savoury banana bread.

Melt the coconut oil and mash the banana before adding to the rest of the ingredients

.

Enjoy. Im still working my way though a loaf i made last week. Its good with vegan butter, hummus or any nut butter! If you top it with anything else let me know what tastes good.

Yummy

Laura xxx

Recipe

Some of my smoothie ingredients 

Smoothies 

So everyone is on the smoothie bandwagon and who can blame them they are amazing!! Thanks to such lovely girls Jan and Jadah from +Simple Green Smoothies  who have smoothie challenges that last a full month and share many amazing recipes  to aura from +Laura Agar Wilson  from Keeping healthy getting stylish, whom i recently completed a 14 day smoothie challenge with  if a month is a little hard for you) and Jordan from +The Blonde Vegan who does amazing recipes too. There are many more blogs and instagram pages i get my inspiration from but these are just a few. 

When i have a smoothie it is often for breakfast, its a great way to get started on your fruit and veg for the day when i drink it on the way to work. Other times, if the craving (yes i do crave my greens!) i have one for lunch, today however i needed two!! So not sorry for that one!! Especially as it means i get to share with you not one but two green smoothie recipes!! 

Smoothie Bowl:

2 large handfuls of spinach

1/2 courgette (zucchini) 

1 medium banana (frozen) 

1/2 to cup of almond milk (or half water half milk) 

1 tablespoon babao powder

1 tablespoon maca power

Supergreens power

Toppings! 

Whatever you like! 

I used, chia seeds, pumpkin, sunflower, linseeds, and toasted coconut flakes. 

Method: 

After lots of trial and error and a tip from Jan and Jadah blend your greens and liquid first then add frozen banana and everything else. I always used to add frozen banana first with milk to get it thick but found the greens were often not smooth enough. Pour smoothie into bowl and add toppings.

Drinkable smoothie (smoothie on the go!) 

Handful of kale 

Handful of spinach

2 stalks of celery 

medium frozen banana 

1/4 large avocado 

Organic burst chlorella

Wheatgrass 

Spirulina 

- teaspoon of each 

Same method as above just pour into mason jar or glass and enjoy!! 

Laura xx

 

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well.

I know I have a few regular followers through Instagram so I thought that it would be a good idea to tell you all a little bit about me.

I'm from Aberdeen in Scotland. Although speaking to me I don't have a strong accent as most which can confuse people. My dad is English, I went to boarding school in England and I've traveled recently (well it's longer than I think than I've been home, boo) so my accent is rather mixed.

I've not always been into health, fitness and good eating as my Instagram implies. For me it was after 4 years of little exercise and eating way to much food with a boyfriend who encouraged large portions of food, and excessive drinking , inevitably my weight went up and my health went down. I was introduced to a very well known weight loss program through a mutual friend (who became my weight loss buddy and now best friend) i became to understand about healthy eating and exercise, and i did lose weight and felt great. Fast forward a bit, i went travelling (more on that later, but no surprise the weight came back on)

I went back on the plan while i was travelling for a bit, then again when i came back home which was in April. That brings us up to June when i went down a different path and changed my diet again. I think i was inspired by the places in London and Brighton i visited.

I at the same time rediscovered my love of yoga thanks to Erin Motz when i started her 30 yoga challenge.I would love to become a qualified instructor one day.  Also thanks to my friend i have become a keen running and have completed 2 half marathons last year. More to come on that front too. I also enjoy other exercise too although my commitment is half what it should be especially compared to some of the girls i follow on instagram! Injuries have been an issue this year and end of last year.

Anyway i promise recipes will come soon when i work out this blog a bit more  and if you want to know anymore about me just let me know.

Thanks for reading

xxx

Hi Everyone,

Firstly i want to apologies for not posting sooner. I mentioned that i was going to start a blog about 2 months ago and unfortunately things got carried away. More on the reasons why later.

Before all that though, i thought  i should give you a little background as to how i came to be here.

I was a follower of a well known diet program on and off for a few years. As most  people do, i relaxed on holiday. This happened when i went down to London for a week for my sister's graduation. I was like a kid in a candy shop in Planet Organic and Infinity Food in Brighton. Love them both!!

I had already embarked on a few smoothie kicks and as recipes suggest had begun using unsweetened almond milk to make then. Regular (cow's milk) was only ever used in tea. When in London i just had almond. This was my first insight into my change as i haven't had dairy milk since. (It also showed me how reliant i was on my food, a big chunk of my luggage was food!! This continues to this day!! )I loved my smoothies, but they didnt always love me back. Digestively not great all the time. I thought it was to do with the yogurt i would sometimes add. Thinking i was dairy intolerant, seeing as i wasn't having cow's milk.. but the problem continued for a few months.

During the summer i heard about Vegan before 6 by Mark Bittman. I have always tried to keep to meat free mondays for about 5 or 6 years and now and again id go vegetarian for a week. Now i was ready to push it further. Id set myself a challenge to try it for a month. I then eventually got tested for allergies/food intolerances about 2 months into being vegan to discover that i was right, dairy doesnt like me! So that was a clear push to stay away from it. Sadly i also found that two of my favourite foods were also on the no go list - spinach and broccoli!! Both a major staple in my diet :( also some beans, and yeast were also a no. I can have all of these just in moderation. Never going to give up green smoothies or nooch!! During my transition into veganism in order to help me be inspired i came across and fell in love with more beautiful women on instagram and to this day religiously follow them and on their blogs. Emma im talking about you! @Coconutandberries and Angela @Ohsheglows her book is amazing!! One of the first blogs i started following along with another Laura (emails between us are a little confusing!!) is Laura @keepinghealthygettingstylish McKel @nutritionstripped is another early blog i started following in the summer. More recently Ella @deliciouslyella. These beautiful women have encouraged and supported me through my journey even though they dont even know it. Simply in most cases just inspiring me with yet another delicious recipe to follow.  

I have had one or two set backs.. little bumps in the road, and as all of you im sure face as well many questions, criticism, and even jokes along the way,  but im proud to say im definitely vegan now. No going back.

This was just a little insight into why ive become vegan any questions and thoughts and tips on blogging please do share!

lots of love

Laura xx