(I apologise to those of you experiencing snow and freezing temperatures while reading this, I wrote this post only 3 weeks before and now there are 3″ of snow on the ground and more promised next day! I feel like I should be posting about a bowl of piping hot porridge!)
The previous day had been soul-sapping: it was one of those depressingly endless steel-grey November days with rain, biting chilly wind and a need for continuous artificial light; one of those days where you feel yourself slowly desiccating in the central heating. I find it hard to motivate myself on these days, no energy whatsoever, I just want to stay under the duvet or sit in front of the tv wrapped in a shawl with chocolate and licorice tea for company!
This particular day, however, was its polar opposite and I was up with the lark: endless blue skies and bright sunshine greeted me when I woke up. I had my early Morning Glory juice (see 7 Juice Recipes) and went for a walk. I love being out in the fresh air with the warmth of the sun on my face, I feel I am a completely different person and I can do anything I put my mind to. I am full of gratitude for my surroundings: for the proximity of parks, fields, woodland, the creatures that inhabit them, and I greet everyone I meet with a cheery smile.
I passed a garden being landscaped and found some small smooth pebbles in the pile of earth that I could use for painting. I saw a couple of squirrels running rings around a tree and digging up hidden larders of acorns. I stood and admired a soaring buzzard before leaving a painted rock on a war grave in our nearby cemetery.
I came home invigorated and ready to be creative with my rocks. First, though, I made breakfast: Mango Chia Pudding, the bright orange fruit reflecting the weather and my mood.
Before I left for my walk, I had put some chia seeds to soak with some homemade Tiger Nut Milk in a jar, and removed some chopped mango from the freezer. It was just a matter of layering my chosen ingredients in the jar, quick and easy. It looks and tastes yum! A nutritious jar of autumn sunshine.
Recipe
(vegan, gluten-free, organic where possible)
In a jar, tall glass or glass dish, mix 1 Tbsp Chia Seeds in 4 Tbsps Tiger Nut Milk (or any other plant milk) and stir vigorously (I get my organic, peeled tiger nuts from The Tiger Nut Company)
Leave in the fridge until the seeds have swelled.
Layer cashew pieces, live coconut yogurt (or any other kind) and mango pieces, until the jar is full.
Add your favourite toppings. I used goji berries, raw dried mulberries, cacao nibs, raw chocolate covered mulberry chips* and more mango. You can use seeds, coconut, blueberries, grated raw chocolate.
Order up some sun and some birdsong, relax and enjoy.
I sat outside on this early November morning to eat my breakfast pudding and it could have been Spring. The hanging baskets were still showing off, if a little windswept, the nemesia was still in full delicate bloom and I had seen daisies growing in someone’s lawn on my walk. The robin was hopping about, busying himself collecting insects where my husband had edged the garden path. What a contrast to the day before. I felt so much better. (The picture here shows the nemesia and the smoothie I had the following morning: banana, mango, blueberries, romaine, walnuts, golden linseeds, chia seeds, coconut water, live soya yogurt. There, two recipes for the price of one!).
(PS We now have 6″ of snow, it’s magical, like a winter wonderland from the old black and white Christmas films).
*I buy mine from The Raw Chocolate Company
Three Cheers for Chias! What Are Chia Seeds & How Do I Use Them? Recipes included
Painted Christmas Card Rocks & Taking A Break
Monday Meditation: Mindfulness and Rock Painting
Copyright: Chris McGowan
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
You introduced me to chia seeds and I have been stirring them into my breakfasts. I have yet to make a proper pud with them. THis recipe sounds delicious and simple…
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They are so easy to use and so versatile with so many nutrients, Inwsh I’d discovered them a lot sooner 😊
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lovely
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I have just had my youngest daughter here – I have long been convinced that she is a SAD sufferer. We went to the wonderful Bio shop in town and stocked up on everything I could think of that is rich in Vitamin D. Amongst the things I have finally converted her to is chia and since you recommended Tiger Milk I have been getting Tiger Nuts from the shop to make the milk. She is going to do the same back home. As a lover of mango I need hardly persuade her to put a little sunshine in her bowl with this recipe. Any other suggestions for her (and I am pretty sure she is anaemic also – she graduated in July and had a very lean three months not wanting to worry me, before she started her job …. too sweet to not want to worry mummy but I have explained that I would rather worry and help than be as concerned as I now am about her symptoms. Sorry. Rambling … you know how I am!
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Sorry I didn’t respond sooner, my blog was really unstable (I know how it feels!) and I couldn’t access my past posts to find links for you. I can’t remember if your daughter is vegan or vegetarian, I have a post on good sources of iron for vegans: https://wp.me/p6UDky-487
Also, you can buy Vitamin D drops, I bought some for my daughter and her youngest son. She suffers from SAD too and rarely sees the sun for half the year as she is stuck in an office from dawn till dusk. I bought Viridian Liquid Vitamin D 2000iu from Amazon for my daughter and a children’s version for her young son. I also bought a small light box for myself, but I only used it for a week, was it’s a bit impractical and I’ve found that I cope much better since I began juicing and subsequently became vegan. Perhaps because I’m getting more of the right nutrients? I know how easy it is to worry about adult children when you’re no longer there to make sure they take care of themselves. 💜
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Thank you so much for all of this. Don’t be surprised that you can’t remember what this daughter is …. I have four of them and they vary. This particular one is vegetarian but the oldest is also worrying me and she is vegan. I suspect the little one I wrote about is practically vegan but struggling with the notion of binning cheese 😉 I will share all your wisdom and try and straighten her out … you are so right – it is hard when they are adults and we no longer have control of it all!
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I can’t keep up with my daughter’s eating habits at all, every time I see her (about 3 times a year) it is something else and I have inevitably made the wrong thing! My addiction to cheese kept me vegetarian for 40 years. It was doing a juice cleanse that broke the chain. I found I no longer liked the thought of eating dairy, it wasn’t a decision I consciously made but it just evolved, and it was the same with eggs. I realised after 4 months I hadn’t had either and if I could be vegan for 4 months I could commit to it forever. Then I started getting vegan posts on my Instagram feed which outlined the cruelty of milk production and I decided that was it. I had been avoiding facing the truth for years because I couldn’t give up cheese and it just wasn’t good enough.
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They are of the same mold our daughters! In terms of Cheese. I eat cheese from producers that I know. For example in Cantal I eat Saint Nectaire from my friend’s farm. I know Ernest and Christine really well and I have first hand experience of their farm. I eat goat cheese here and some sheep but only from tiny producers. I also occasionally indulge in a Saint Marcelin or Saint Felicien but again only if I know the producers. My eggs come from friends hens and I eat few. In fact in Cantal I eat some meat because I know the cattle (it’s primarily a beef departement) are free range, well husbanded and the slaughter is as humane as slaughter can be. Here I do not risk it. It’s a more populated area and I have little knowledge of the livestock husbandry. If I did. I would. The problems come with mass production and mass marketing. My ethos for as long as I can remember has been to buy from as close to where I walk as I can. And to grow everything possible. When we eventually settle it will be to land that we can grow our own veg and fruit on, nuts too hopefully, have a sheep or two and possibly goats to milk and to foster and adopt unwanted animals both domestic and livestock. My husband has even conceded that I can have a pig. This pig will live its whole life through with no fear of the knife 🐷
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We all have our own line in the sand and are at different points on our journey, we do what we can and what we feel comfortable with. 💜
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Indeed we do …. being educated and understanding the issues is the key thing – only then can we make our own decisions
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It is amazing how much sunlight, or lack of it, can effect our mood.
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