Healthy Eating with a Side of Chocolate...

I've said it once, I'll say it again. My name is Annie and I am a chocoholic.

As the new year begins, so along with it comes the realm of resolutions and beginnings, promises of healthier eating, exercising 6 times a week with no alcohol in January, being more positive, saving more, spending less, eating more greens, eating less meat and getting hot. These resolutions usually last about the same time as it takes for someone to ask me in the bleak days of London January, whilst sitting at my desk, looking out the window into the greyness of St Paul's... Should we go for a glass of red?

The luxury of time. Such an abstract concept. Why should time be a luxury? I never feel like I have enough time. My nights are a constant battle, filled with all the activities I really do enjoy doing vs having time to not do all the things I enjoy. Downtime. Which means different things on different days. Tonight it meant going straight home after work, no yoga, no hiit, no football, no catchups. 

'You'll never find time for anything. If you want time, you have to make it....'

So in the abstractness of the evening, I decided to make myself some soup. Like chicken soup for the soul, except not, as of course, I'm trying to eat less meat. So instead it was roasted sweet potato, butternut squash, spinach and quinoa soup for a wintery January evening. It was definitely soul warming and soothing. Perfect with a side of chocolate. Abstract recipe below. 

So I did actually write a few things down for 2015, but none of the usual points listed above. All of the above will be a bonus in the quest for a year of difference, yet made with the same ingredients. Abit of being stirred, rising,  baked, shaken and consumed. Yes, all of the clichés.

It will be about balance, the Ha and the Tha and the enjoyment and indulgence with virtue and purity in the company of strangers and loved ones. It is continually cultivating this balance somehow, someway, somewhere....

Sweet potato, butternut squash, spinach and quinoa soup for the non-chicken soup drinkers.

Ingredients

1 sweet potato

1 butternut squash 

1 onion

Few cloves of garlic

Few handfuls of spinach

1 cup of cooked quinoa 

Vegetable stock

To garnish (optional)

Parsley

Chilli flakes

Pepper

Crumbed feta 

1. Chop sweet potato and butternut squash into small chunks, drizzle with some Olive oil and roast for about 30 minutes at 190' (a highish heat!)

2. Gently fry the onion and garlic

3. Add the roasted squash and sweet potato to the onions and fry again briefly, then add vegetable stock and simmer until the vegetables are soft. Leave to cool slightly.

4. Cook the quinoa separately

5. Purée the soup in a blender or with a hand blender then pour back into a saucepan.

6. Add the Spinach until it wilts.

7. You can either add quinoa to the pot or just add desired quantity to individual

Servings (which is what I did).

8. Garnish and drink up!

On another note, the greyness of St Paul's can be rather mesmerising.

Musings of an Avid Dreamer

Some words are meant just for me and some are not. So many notebooks and blank pages of sorts. I have a binder of yoga materials, an A4 notebook from my class with notes, and a couple of black books, thrown in with a few others. A journal for my yoga practice, a black book of ideas, a book of thoughts, blank pages and a giant art book yet to be used. Each one has a different purpose and it reminds me how much I love books and stationary and what they represent or the potential of what they could be. 

For the most part, they are just words. However, a word on paper is more real than one that exists only in my head. In there, they get lost. On paper, I am reminded.

So my coffee breaks have become my little brain dump. Well, they will become. 

Yoga and wine and all things fine...

Waiting in line for the Graham Norton show. My sister managed to get audience tickets after request after request. I don't think I have ever watched a full episode. I don't know the format of the show or what the red chair was until last night, but I am looking forward to the Kasabian performance and I do actually know the guests. (Samuel L.Jackson, Keira Knightley and Jenson Button).

I haven't had a television for 8 months, nor do I feel like I need one but I feel should have one. So I bought one. Just in time for the World Cup festivities that I may follow. The question of buying materialistic items versus investing in experiences has cropped up a lot around me lately. More likely though, it has always been around but I simply notice it more now. My restless notions putting me in a predicament of furnishing my flat vs well, not furnishing.

One is deemed worthy and the other just a desire to own an item. It simply boils down to perspective, which changes all the time. For everyone. What matters most and more for one person may be the same as what matters least for another. #choices #firstworldproblems 

I have been doing a lot of yoga lately. It is my reprieve and my time for just me. For an activity that began for purely the physical benefits and challenges it presented, I am slowly realising the mental benefits that are all encompassing. Again though, the question has come up. For an activity that has evolved since I don't know when and provided a pathway to spirituality via a means other than religion, it can be an expensive activity in this city. There are cheaper ways to partake in the activity, free classes, trials at yoga studios all around the city and of course, self practice at home. However, to stay devoted to just one studio usually comes at a price. 

I did, however, manage to attend a very enjoyable free morning yoga class held on the rooftop of One New Change this week. The sun was shining, slight breeze and the view of beautiful St Pauls after savasana. It is Also the venue of a popular rooftop bar in the summer. Where downward dog meets downtown demons.

Consumerism is all around us, that we can't escape. Nor do I think we really want to. Not completely anyway - as I don't think it is possible. Unless we are willing to trade in all our Apple products and switch off from the world around us and hide away in a remote location with nothing, but all that we need.

The desire to be less materialistic is at the forefront of my mind. To have more experiences - travel, try new things, learn new skills, see your city, country, world and friends through different lenses (Canon perhaps?) is important for the memories that it creates. Memories and moments last and revisit every few days, months, years - for the rest of your life. If you have a good memory. Whereas my materialistic purchases don't usually survive much longer than a drunken night. Two, if I am lucky!

However, that is me. It is hard to find that balance and some days I try harder than others. Some days I don't need to try and others I rationalise a little bit more than my normal. Which is, a lot.  

Some days I really do need that new Zara top for Summer ;-)