right now

right now...

... I have two wonderful little girls sleeping upstairs, exhausted after their late night chatting and enjoying being together.

... I am enjoying the chilled morning air, distant noises from a day to start, in a perfectly silent house.

... I am making lists for today's shopping and the Easter fun that's going to happen over the weekend.

... I am starting a week long break from teaching yoga.

... I am adding another list of all the things me and the girls are going to do in this week we're all free!

... I am getting ready for a day filled with baking for the weekend.

... I am waiting for my big guy to walk in our door, sweaty but very happy after his early morning bike ride. (so grateful he found something he enjoys so much!)

... I am sipping hot ginger water knowing my life is pretty good!

what are you doing/feeling right now?

wherever you are, whatever you do, have a wonderful Easter weekend, filled with love, fun, joy and hey, chocolate of course ;-)

week-end

the week-end was also start to a 2 week holiday for the girls! only one week for me, but not yet ;-)

Thursday afternoon was all fun and play, schoolbags in the corner and happy faces all around, rounded by fish and chips and burger dinner with friends!

until the little girl started to complain about pain in her ear...well, home we went, straight to bed. grateful to live in Cairo, where you can just call a pharmacy, 8pm, 10min later they are in front of your door with whatever you need!

after a not so easy night, the fever was high and the girl was tired, a sandstorm all around us - the perfect day to be poorly.

what else is there for a Mum as to start a little spring-clean. I went through the girls wardrobes, cleared out toys and books and rearranged the little girls room. in between there was some cuddling, movie watching, lots of fresh juice and little, but just her favourite food.

so it went by, a very quiet and calm week-end :-)

how about yours?

following thehabitofbeing

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

inspired by "soule mama"

going on about food

right now it's not more or less cooking than before, but more conscious cooking I guess. and it feels good, it feels right and I am tasting more and/or "deeper"...meaning, I can taste if a meal is nourishing my body in a good way or not.

as an example, last night's dinner. as we had dinner guests and it needed to be a quick dinner, after that we had to run to school for a performance of the big girl, I decided on something I know the girls and their friends like: tunaballs, pasta, tomato sauce, fried vegetables

oh, it's one of the girls favourite! they didn't have much of the vegetables and I mainly added them for myself. so I ate the vegetables (broccoli, spinach) and a yummy piece of fresh soy milk bread I made in the afternoon. and I was perfectly happy with it! I wasn't drawn towards the sauce or the paste, yes, I had one tunaball, as they have no ingredient that I shouldn't eat at the moment, but one was enough. long story short, I am very happy with the fact that my body is noticing what I do for it :-)

not saying that I am not missing "my" sweets...oh, I do and it is not always easy to watch the girls go get their treats after dinner. but they are so sweet...my big girl would come give me a big hug after she ate her piece of chocolate and describe how wonderful it tastes. not, that's no torture to me.

sometimes when I am in the shop, I very slowly walk past all the sweets, checking what there is, almost tasting things and that's it.

don't worry I will go back to sweets, but right now I am just happy about how well things go!

as I shared the bread recipe with you in my last post, here something you can make once you have some bread left and need to use - Spinach Strata! the recipe comes from this book!

we actually had it as dinner, but it makes a wonderful, quick weekend breakfast too!

and one more before I go and help my big girl bake some chocolate chip cookies :-)

it's artichoke season in Cairo! before last year I had no idea what to do with fresh artichokes, but luckily my italian friend opened up a whole world of wonderful artichoke recipes for me! last week I found some fresh ones and here is what I did!

the artichokes are cleaned and steamed in water. once done I put a little salt and grated some parmesan cheese on top. brown rice - that's it, I love it simple, sometimes ;-)

week-end and a bread recipe

oh, the days just go by way too fast...I hardly ever make it to this space and in a way that's good as I need more time away from the computer, but I also miss it...especially as I have quite some recipes to share with you!

but let me start with the weekend, inspired by Amanda from thehabitofbeing

it started with our first outdoor breakfast of the season! Friday was exceptionally hot here in Cairo, so I cleaned table and chairs and we enjoyed our buffet-style breakfast. followed by a trip to the vegetable shop with my little girl. a huge bag was filled with lots of fruit and vegetables, mainly to make more fresh juice as we finally found a mix that the whole family likes!

the rest of the day was mainly relax, doing yoga... until the man and I went out to have BBQ with friends, leaving the girls at home watching this. the temperature dropped quite a bit that night, but the food and company were just great.

Saturday morning I went out to teach a yoga class and back home to spend some special time with the little girl again, as the big girl went for a party... as the weather wasn't as hot anymore but just wonderful spring temperature we spontaneously decided on another BBQ. I quickly made these and liked them a lot!

I made it to yoga class late afternoon, just in time to come home and take the girls to bed, watching another episode of this to end a wonderful weekend, that just went by too fast :-)

now what's with the bread...well, I am on strong Candida diet since a couple of weeks again and finally found the best yeast-free bread recipe so far. here it is:

Yoghurt Soda Bread

3 1/4 cups wholewheat plain flour

2 tsp potassium (or sodium) bicarbonate

1 1/3 cups natural yoghurt

2/3 cup warm filtered water

I usually add a handful of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds to make it a bit more interesting!

this will make two small loaves or one large one. preheat the oven to 200C. sift the flour and mix in the raising agent, then stir in the yoghurt and warm water. mis together well then coat the mixture with more flour and flour working surface. no kneading is necessary. if making small loaves, divide into two and make into fairly flat, oval shapes. cut a cross on the top. place on a floured tray and bake for about 30minutes!

The recipes is out of this book. I haven't tried a lot of the recipes yet, but definitely love the bread...a carob cake didn't come out that nice. give me a little more time and I can tell you more about it ;-)

ENJOY and oh, how was your week-end!?