'Chocolate' Hearts

These delicious little morsels have a great texture - like chocolate fudge. I served them with strawberries that had been soaking in rosewater.
They are quite rich so eat slowly and consciously!

I used 'activated' nuts, which means they have been soaked in water over night then dried in a very low oven. These are much easier to digest!

'Chocolate' Hearts

1 cup of raw cacao
2 cups of walnut
2 cups of pitted fresh dates
1 cup of chopped hazelnuts (or macadamia nuts or almonds)
A pinch of sea salt

Lightly toast the walnuts in a saucepan or in the oven until golden. You don't need to do this if you have used activated walnuts.
Grind the walnuts in the food processor.
Add the cacao and pulse to combine.
Slowly add the dates one at a time while the motor is running. The mixture will start to stick.

Tip into a bowl and stir in the chopped hazelnuts and sea salt.

Press the mixture into a pan lined with baking paper. Pop in the fridge until ready to serve.

Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out your chocolates.

Serve on a pretty platter with some strawberries soaked in rosewater dotted around.

Food for the yogi

I thought I would share the menu from my last private yoga weekend...

Recipes will come soon!

4 Things Yoga Taught Me About Investing

Have a look at this article written by my clever sister Jo.

It's amazing how we can use our yoga practice to discover truths about other areas of our lives.
It makes a lot of sense!

 

Image source: Yoga Wellbeing

Yoga weekend to welcome spring

Everyone loves Spring time!
Emerge from your winter hibernation with a weekend of yoga.

This yoga weekend will focus on morning routines. While we only have two to practice together, the aim is to continue with a morning routine which is beneficial to your health but also realistic with your lifestyle.

According to Ayurveda, morning routines are important. When the body adjusts to a routine, it starts to rely on it, which in turns means the nervous system relaxes. Routines also mean your body is ready for food when it expects it and therefore can digest it properly.

I will provide more information on this prior to the weekend, but some of the routine you will do at home before you come to yoga (of course this is optional). So it means you have to get up early - I'm sorry!

As a guide this is roughly what our routine will look like:

Wake early
Use a tongue scraper, clean teeth
Sip a lemon and ginger tea, or just warm water
Use a neti pot to clear nasal passages
Meditate, or sit quietly for about 5 or 10 minutes
Apply warmed oil to your body. This self massage is known as Abhyanga. (I will blog about this soon)
Shower or bathe

Then we will meet for a brisk walk together.
Yoga class
Alternate nostril breathing.

Finally it will be time for a well deserved breakfast!

Class times are:
Friday 14th September 5.30pm
Saturday 15th September 6am for walk, 6.30 if you would like to join just for yoga
Saturday 15th September 5.30pm
Sunday 16th September 6am for walk, 6.30 for yoga.

The cost for the weekend is $135 per person for yoga and meals.
I will have neti pots and tongue scrapers available for you to buy. We can organise this once you're booked in.

 Send me an email if you would like to come.

Back in Yamba...

After lots of amazing yoga in New York and Nicaragua I am back in Yamba!
Yoga classes will be back on this week.

Monday 6.30pm
Tuesday 6.15am
Wednesday 5.30pm

Looking forward to seeing you!

New York

 image taken from elephantjournal.com

Yoga Vida have two lovely studios in Manhattan. The style is vinyasa flow, with upbeat tunes in the background and gorgeous instructors!Before the flow sequence begins, the teacher gives a little 'intention' or topic for the class. This is a really nice way to consider mental and emotional qualities of yoga, and seems to be a gentle reminder to the Lululemon clad New Yorkers that yoga is beyond creating a svelte physique.

One of the teachers spoke about Rajas, Tamas and Sattva. Basically, these three qualities, or gunas, make up all creation; so physical objects, food, people, thoughts, weather, environments, places are all made up of these qualities, usually one dominates, but they can be ever changing.

Rajas is fast moving, active, energetic.
Sattva is calm, cool, clear, peaceful and harmonious
Tamas is inertia, dull, sluggish.

Yoga reflects our lifestyle. Sometimes your practice may feel heavy, dark and sluggish (tamasic), other times you feel revved up (rajastic), and then there's the days when you feel light, calm and open (sattvic).

A city like New York could be described as Rajastic. People need a certain amount of Rajas to survive or succeed here. Determination, drive and motivation are all part of this city. Rajas isn't necessarily a negative quality, it's what keeps motivated, but in general there is too much rajas in Western lifestyles. The intention for this class was to bring more sattvic qualities into the practice, and of course into the rest of the day.

Keep balance on and off the mat and consider the gunas next time you do yoga.

I'll be away for a little while...

I will be away from the 7th June until the 26 July, so classes won't be on during this time.

I'll be in New York and Central America doing lots of yoga, as well as a level one Thai massage course. So I will come home with lots of new inspiration!

I'm going to blog about different yoga classes while I'm away, so keep visiting my blog.

If you would like to be included on my email list to make sure you know when classes are back on, contact me with your email address and I'll pop you on.