healthy

Quick Energy Balls.

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FullSizeRender-5We’re always on a quest to try and lead a healthy but balanced lifestyle. We try our best to interpret this during our retreats. We believe that everything in balance is ok, which is why we always greet our guests with a healthy cake or treat when they arrive on one of our weekends. Its a nice way to let people know that they are in for a healthy but relaxed weekend.

There’s a lot of variations on these energy balls at the moment. They’re a great boost mid morning or afternoon, packed with protein and other good stuff but taste delicious. So if you’re vulnerable to the mid morning/afternoon slump then get making a batch of these to sit at your desk for when hunger strikes.

We’re a little obsessed with the new Jamie Oliver ‘Superfoods’ book at the moment, tons of healthy stuff in there and these energy balls don’t disappoint. We especially love the turmeric kick in there (turmeric being great for us as its anti inflammatory and packed with anti-oxidents). Try them out and make substitutions for anything you like/don’t like or simple just have lying around your cupboards. (See ours)

ENERGY BALLS RECIPE :

  • 70g of pumpkin seeds
  • 20g puffed rice or puffed quinoa
  • 50g whole almonds (we used any nuts we had lying around)
  • 80g Medjool dates (we used dried figs)
  • 1cm piece of fresh turmeric or 1/2 teaspoon of ground turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of quality cocoa powder (we used raw cacao)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon manuka honey
  • 1 orange

METHOD :

Blitz the nuts, seeds, puffed rice or quinoa in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the dates, spices and cocoa and blitz again.

Add the honey, orange and vanilla, scraping the sides until the mixture starts to form a ball in the food processor.

With wet hands roll into little balls and the roll the balls in either blitz seeds or raw cacao.

They’ll keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.

ENJOY! x

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Ready. Set. Breathe.

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6af47f64987bd17b2c38e82388ee00c6Morning. We’ve been battling colds and coughs here for the last week which has inspired today’s post as it feels like we’re not the only ones! The colder weather as of late has been throwing up all sorts of persistent little bugs which we wanted to find some nice natural ways of dealing with and ditching ‘over the counter’ syrups and sweets. Thus allowing us to BREATHE again!

Hope you find this useful and we’d love to hear any of your natural tips too.

 

Drink This | Cough Buster Thyme Tea

We love this tea. For some it might be a little hard to stomach but works wonders at breaking up a dry, tickly and persistent cough.

  • Steep 2 tbsps of fresh thyme (or 1 tsp of dries thyme) in 1 cup of boiling water for 10 minutes. The add….
  • 1tbsp of Honey
  • 1 tsp of turmeric
  • 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp of grated ginger
  • 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice and drink 3 to 4 times a day

Open your chest and upper back | At this time of year we find ourselves more hunched in colder weather and tensing up to stay warm, practising some exercises that extend your spine and open up your chest will help to keep things moving and free. Yoga and Pilates are the perfect way to do it, so head for your local class (or come and see us!) and we’ll sort you out.

 

Sweat it out | If you’re not feeling like a hot yoga class or jumping around to get sweaty then take yourself off to the local sauna or steam room to relax. Most pools and gyms have them but we love to indulge a little at SpaLondon in Bethnal Green and the City. Pay £25 for 3 hours and full use of the spa, sauna, steam room and resting area. http://www.spa-london.org/york-hall/thermal-spa-york-hall/

Home steam | If you can’t make it to the spa then try some home steam inhalation. The hot steam moistens the nasal passages, thus clearing your blocked nose and opens up congested sinuses allowing you to breathe more easily. Pour some boiling water into a bowl and add some tea tree and eucalyptus essential oil drops (which can easily be bought on-line) Cover head with towel over the bowl. Stay there for as long as you can and inhale the vapours.

Get to bed early | The importance of sleep goes way beyond boosting your mood. Getting a good nights sleep will boost your immunity and allow your body to function properly. If you struggle getting to sleep and staying asleep, have a read at our guide ‘How to Tune Out last thing at night’

 

We hope this helps. We’d love any more tips too!

Breathe easy x

 

Not so bad mince pies…

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mincepiesFor us, it can sometimes be tricky to find healthy sweet treats that live up to their unhealthy counterparts! But these mince pies from Deliciously Ella don’t disappoint. The pastry is soft, sweet and super easy to roll, cut and shape. For the inside, we substituted the  sultanas with figs which was gave it a lovely decadent flavour, plus any left over dough you can roll out and make some cookies, which are a healthy little cup of tea time snack and we do love a spot of frugality.

So here they are and hope you’re December is shaping up well…

Makes 12 mince pies

For the crust

  • 400g of ground almonds
  • 6 tablespoons of coconut oil
  • 4 tablespoons of water
  • 20 medjool dates (400g)

For the mince

  • 2 apples (200g)
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 100g raisins
  • 100g sultanas
  • 100g dried cranberries
  • the juice of 2 oranges
  • 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon of ginger

Chop the apples into small pieces and place them into a saucepan with all the remaining ingredients and stir it together. Let the mince simmer for about 30 minutes, until the apples are nice and soft

While the mince cooks make the crust. Place all the crust ingredients together in a food processor and blend for a minute or so until everything has mixed together and the dates are totally broken down. Then sprinkle flour over a surface and roll the mix out so that it’s about half a cm thick.

Heat the oven to 180C. Grease muffin tins with coconut oil and then mould the mix into the individual tins, once you’ve done this cut the remaining mixture into stars, these will go on top of the pies. Then place the tray of crusts in the oven for 8 minutes, until they start to turn golden brown – at which point take them out and allow them to cool while the mince mix finishes cooking.

Once the mince has cooked start assembling the pies. Simply add two heaped teaspoons of mince into each pie before placing a star over the middle of the mince. Bake the pies again for 8 minutes

Once they’ve baked leave for twenty minutes to cool and finish setting before enjoying!

Pumpkin and Cinnamon Cookies

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finishedcookiesFor most of us the celebration of Halloween is about scary fancy dress, trick or treating and ducking for apples…but the origins of Halloween have been traced back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. It was known to signify the end of the summer and a change in daily life, the end of the last harvest meant people took to their warmer homes working on crafts and spending more time together. It was thought as a magical time with strong connection to the world of the dead (hence the scary costumes we see nowadays!)

So with a little nod to the celebrations we made these Pumpkin and Cinnamon Cookies with some leftover pumpkin. They’re a bit on the healthy side but with some optional orange icing to sweeten them up if you fancy?! And really rather nice with a warm cup of tea…

Happy Halloween!

mhairipumpkin

CINNAMON AND PUMPKIN COOKIES

Ingredients :

  • 75g wholemeal flour
  • 50g porridge oats
  • 50g pumpkin puree
  • 75g butter
  • A handful of raisins
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • pinch of sea salt
  • Icing sugar and orange food colouring (for decorating)

1.Blitz your leftover pumpkin (the insides once seeds are removed) to a puree in the food processor.

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2.Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in the other.

3. Mix everything together and add the raisins.

mixture

4. Make small balls (around the size of a squash ball and then flatten down onto a lined baking tray.

5. Bake for 15 minutes at 180 or until golden brown on top.

You can either leave them as they are and enjoy or decorate with some orange icing…

Enjoy x

Super power beetroot juice..

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Beetroot juiceOk so the title might be a slight exaggeration BUT this juice DOES pack a punch and will make you feel super duper. Try ditching your morning or afternoon coffee and have this instead? We make big batches of this to drink through the week. Feel free to play around with the quantities to suit your taste. We do enjoy a juice or a smoothie here at Tune Out and we like to treat all our retreaters to some of our concoctions!! Hope you like this one…

  • Raw beetroot, carrot and apple (we used around 5 of each)
  • Ginger (a thumbs worth)
  • Red grapes (a handful)
  • Lemon juice (we used 1)
  • Apple cider vinegar (a splash)

Put all the ingredients, except the lemon juice and cider vinegar, through the juicer, then add the rest. Stir and enjoy!