This salad is so nice for the hot summer weather right now, it's juicy and crunchy and light in the stomach and so easy to make! In China we eat a lot of black sesame seeds, especially women. It is said that it helps keep the hair from turning gray and has high anti-aging properties. The Chinese use the white sesame seeds for edible purposes and more the black ones for medicinal purposes. This seed contains high levels of Vitamin E, helping to promote cell division and healthy skin. These seeds are rich in sesamin and sesamolin, which can help lower cholesterol and blood pressure levels, which is key to good heart health.
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This is a variation on the raw coconut yogurt I posted up a few weeks ago. Coconuts contain one of the healthiest oils on earth, the meat contains medium fatty chain acids which are broken down faster and also helps to reduce cholesterol levels. It also contains high level of manganese, which helps stabilize blood sugar levels as well as synthesize fats and proteins, balancing moods and increasing your capacity to overcome stress. This version combines the healthy benefits of blueberries and cherries for a delicious treat any time of the day. It's great for breakfast to get your day started!
Making a raw cake for a get together often presents the problem of satisfying everyone's taste buds, but seriously, who doesn't like chocolate and blueberries right? It's summer right now and the hot weather calls for something lighter so what's better than sweet juicy blueberries. Combined with a thin layer of dark chocolate ganache and topped with a light lemon cashew cream, each bite of this dessert is quite the experience!
With the 30/60 day Bikram challenge coming to an end last week, and I was teaching both classes on the last day, I thought I'd make a treat for the hard working yogis. Sometimes it's hard to make one thing that everyone will like so I thought a combination of something light like a creamy orange combined with dark chocolate would hopefully satisfy everyone's taste buds. The coconut milk and cashews gives the orange a light flavour which takes the edge off the chocolate ganache, and this was very easy to make, took about 20 mins for the whole thing. Turned out to be a success - lots of happy yogis!
There's nothing better than fresh coconut water straight from the real thing, but usually you are left with all the meat which has some wonderful health benefits, so why not use it to make creamy, dairy free yogurt! It will take you less than 10 mins to make this, all you need is a good blender and through the fermentation process you also get a good dose of probiotics which is so good for the gut system!
Once you try this super easy yogurt recipe, you'll never go back to store bought again. It really is so simple to make, not to mention containing all the amazing benefits of probiotics. Cashew make for a wonderful base for any yogurt, not only do they have a creamy light taste, they have a lower fat content than most other nuts. About 3/4 of their fat is unsaturated fatty acids, which is a healthy fat, helping to lower bad cholesterol and promote heart health and cardiovascular health. It contains high levels of copper, which in turn helps regulate thyroid functions, helps the body to utilize iron, maintaining bone and connective tissue health as well as helps produce melanin.
So how do you eating ice cream at 11.30 at night with no guilty conscience? Make it vegan, make it raw! This cashew based ice cream was so easy to make, tastes delicious and has none of the after effects of the normal dairy one. You can add anything into it once you have the base, I just happened to have some pineapple and raw chocolates sitting there so I threw that in, giving it a subtle sweetness while letting the caramel flavour come out.
This is great if you feel like something light but still substantial, pasta without the heavy feeling afterwards. Kale in the last few years has gained popularity as a superfood, being one of the healthiest vegetables available. It's high in fiber, iron, Vitamin K, A & C, low in calories and has zero fat. Per calorie it has more iron than beef and more calcium than milk. It's a good source of potassium, manganese, phosphorus and copper. The mushrooms help add an earth flavour as well as thickens up the sauce, toning down the coconut milk taste.
Imagine a creamy white chocolate cheesecake with spicy maple syrup oozing out with every bite... Now try to imagine that being healthy. Well it can be done! It was girls yoga lunch date on the weekend and my contribution was dessert, I was originally going to make a dark and white chocolate, then I saw some cinnamon in the pantry, had a craving for it and then decided to go with maple cinnamon and white chocolate. I have to say, it came out really well, if you look at the picture, you can see little pockets of maple all throughout the cake. Very yummy!
I'm not a huge fan of eating for breakfast as I normally have a green juice or smoothie but Mum bought a huge bag of chia seeds the other day so I thought I'd try them out. This chia seed pudding was quick to make, and I tried it for breakfast and it wasn't bad, filling and tasty and wasn't too heavy either.
I made some extra to have as dessert as well :) The bananas and cashews went really well together. I wasn't after something very sweet, so the light creaminess of cashew worked well, and the bananas gave it a sweet taste. You can use any sort of nut milk for this, or if you want something even light try using coconut water instead. Chia seeds delivers a huge amount of nutrients with very few calories, they were prized by the Aztecs and Mayans for their ability to provide sustainable energy. these little black seeds absorb 10-12 times their weight in water, turning into a gel like consistency and expanding in the stomach, increasing fullness and the providing fiber which also feeds the friendly bacteria in the intestine, boosting the gut health. |
"I am not what happened to me,
I am what I choose to become" Carl Gustave Jung I'm Binny, a full time Bikram Yoga teacher and studio owner that lives in Perth, Australia.
I started this blog to share the things I love the best in the world: being healthy and happy, food (especially raw), yoga, traveling and most importantly, learning how to love and be true to myself. I suffered from severe digestive problems when I was younger, being gluten and lactose intolerant, and developed compartment syndrome and fibromyalgia in my teens. I have lived with constant pain for over 16 years now. Over the past 10 years, I've shifted to a mainly plant based diet and realised that being well and healthy is a way of life. I have been teaching Bikram yoga since 2011, in the US and Australia. Due to my health issues I've also had a lot of bodywork done as well as explored alternative therapies. I've become much more aware of myself as a result of all this - physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Right now I love my life. In my career I love what I do and I do what I love. I have traveled to some amazing places around the world and made lifelong friends. In between working and traveling, I cook up a storm in the kitchen, especially raw desserts, spend time with the people I love the best, which now includes a yoga husband, a mini yogini Estell, and our dog! I try to listen to my body the best I can. I truly believe that we all have the power and the capabilities to heal our own bodies, to nourish the spirit and seek our own happiness and life's purpose. This my journey... Archives
August 2019
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