Feeding the Mind and Body

Date Paste

I have been feeling stressed, too much to do, too little time to do it, ( and horrendous hay fever) so I was determined to make time for things that feed my mind and body this week.  Here a five things that have helped me feel more like 'me'.  For this post I am joining with Amy over at love made my home


 Upcycle

I am thoroughly fed up with painting walls and doors so I thought I would paint a chair instead.  I had a couple of little pots of Annie Sloane chalk paint left over from another project, an old pillow case bought in a charity shop, an old chair that was given to us years ago and so had some fun.

Eat

When I'm tired and stressed I turn to eating crap, and I have been doing a lot of that lately, I'm trying to have lovely healthy things prepared for when I get home from work so I have no excuse to grab for the packets of crisps and chocolate.  Refined sugar seems to be the food of the devil at the moment and to blame for all our ills, so when I came across date paste in a recipe I just had to give it a go.  I used it in an oil free salad dressing for this lovely healthy brown rice salad.  It sweetened the white wine vinegar to make a tasty dressing.  You can also use it in your baking, though I haven't tried that yet.  Actually it is tasty enough to use as a spread, in moderation.  I can buy medjool dates by the pound in my local greengrocers and always have some ready to munch on. They are full of vitamins B5 and B6 so really good for you though they do have an awful lot of calories in them, but still better than refined sugar.  All you have to do is take the stones out, cover them in warm water and leave for a few hours to soften. Pop them into your food processor with a drop of vanilla essence,  adding a little of the water a bit at a time until you get a thick paste.  Keep it in an airtight container in the fridge and it should keep for a week or two, or you can freeze it.

Grow

I was lucky enough to win piquante pepper seeds in a giveaway from Dani  over at Ecofootprintsa   I was really worried that they would be wasted on me as I'm such a novice at growing things.  Luckily some of them germinated, so I put a few in the veg patch and a few in pots in the greenhouse.  The ones outside don't seem to be doing much but the ones in the greenhouse seem to be happy so far, fingers, legs, arms, eyes and everything else crossed.  Not sure if I should remove some at this stage so they are not too squashed, any advice?

Create

In the evenings I have been doing a little knitting before I go to bed.  It may only be a couple of lines but the cardi is growing little by little.  I have had to buy some more wool it seems to be taking more than it said.  It probably would have been cheaper to buy two cardis for what it is costing, but I'm looking forward to snuggling up in my home made knit in the winter.  It is made on circular needles which I love using.

Learn

I am also trying to grab some time to read this really interesting book.  The author decided to spend a year eating only locally and home produced food.  It's a fascinating read, she really knows her stuff, it is shocking what the food industry is up to!

I hope you all have a good weekend,

Chickpea xx