Ayurvedic Cookies – Heavenly Muesli-Crunch Cookies (Sugar-free!)

August 9, 2016 by Lorien

This recipe has been blowing my mind and deeply exciting my tastebuds and senses since I first made and intuitively put together a batch of these delicious cookies a week ago!

They are super simple, require no processed sweetener (not even beloved maple!). They are a great wholesome treat to have on hand for afternoon tea, a snack at work, the kid’s lunchbox’s and or any other excuse you can make in your day to open the cookie jar and sit down with one of these amazing treats in your mouth!

…Okay, enough cookie-talk, let’s get to the cookie-cooking!

Wholesome Ayurvedic

Heavenly Muesli-Crunch Cookies!

(sugar-free, nut-free, gluten-free*, vegan friendly)

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of organic oats*
1 cup of organic sunflower seeds
1 cup of organic pumpkin seeds
4 tablespoons of organic cinnamon powder
2 tablespoons of organic cardamon powder (or seeds)
1 tsp of fennel seeds
1/2 tsp of fine organic sea salt
200ml of home-made organic melted ghee or coconut oil
20 organic dried ‘desert’ dates soaked, de-pitted and mashed into a puree or blended.
1 tsp of organic pure vanilla essence
your love!

* Note: If you are celiac, use ‘gluten-free un-contaminated oats‘.

Creation process:

**Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes while you prepare your cookie mix.

Place all dry ingredients; oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon powder, cardamon powder & sea salt into a large mixing bowl.
Prepare your dates: take the pits out of the dates and place dates in a medium bowl. Cover dates in hot water and let soften for 3-4 minutes. Once dates are soft, remove the water and mash with a fork or blend in a food processor to make a date puree. (It’s ok to leave some chunks!) Add the date puree to the dry mix of oats and seeds.
Now melt your ghee or coconut oil and stir into the dry mix with the dates.
Add vanilla essence and stir with a wooden spoon or clean hands until the wet and dry ingredients have mixed well together and your happy with the consistency.
Take some melted ghee or coconut oil and oil your baking tray or use a sheet of baking paper.
Take a small piece of cookie mix and roll into a ball in your hands then flatten with the palms of your hand to create a circular cookie shape.
Place your tray of cookies in the oven and bake for approx 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Take them out once they’re done and let them cool before stacking them in your favourite cookie jar or container!

Voila! Your cookies are now ready for your nourishing pleasure! Yum!! :)

If you loved this recipe – share the love by sharing the recipe link below with your friends via facebook!

Happy wholesome cookie munching friends!

x Lorien

Vatta Balancing for the Festive Season

November 27, 2014 by Lorien

“It is better to travel well than to arrive”.

-Buddha

W-o-w-e-e-e ! :)

This is my official way of saying, ‘wholly molly, we are almost at the end of this calendar year- 2014’!

The spring air is warm and strong northerly winds are blowing out all the cobwebs from Winter. There is movement.

Jacarandas blossoming, animals coming out of hibernation to bask in the sun, frangipani shoots sprouting! Spring is certainly in full swing here in Australia.

Similarly, the air is crisp and fresh, evenings are cool and the flowers are tucking themselves into bed for the winter in the northern hemisphere. (I have family in Canada who give me this inside info!) :-)

There is seasonal change happening everywhere! :) And it’s a glorious thing! Without these changes and cycles, we would not experience the richness and beauty that Mother Nature has to offer in all of her forms and expressions.

Vatta, the element of Air + Ether is present during seasonal change as well as times of the year where there is more activity happening – such as the holiday season.

In my personal experience and observation, seasonal change combined with the busyness leading up to Christmas/New Years can have us feeling:

‘Crazy, frantic, hurried, rushed, and scattered!’

We move fast to get things done, resulting in being short tempered and feisty when things get out of control.

Self-care, proper nourishment, meditation practice, time for rest and proper sleep are all things that can very easily slip by the wayside when there is so much to do and so much happening.

It’s tough to keep the balance!

Ironically, these are the very things we need to be doing – more than ever!

This time of year it is important to ~ ‘slow down’…

These might seem like ghastly words to hear – when your social calendar is filled every weekend until Christmas and your diary is bursting with ‘to do’ lists that scream at you every day.

Trust me on this one though…

Taking a moment to apply some ‘slow down’ to your day, will have you feeling more like this:

Energised, calm, centered, empowered and on-top of it all! You’ll stand out at the Christmas parties, as people will notice that you did something different this year. You don’t look frazzled. You are poised and calm, centered and glowing. You are radiantly grinning and proud of yourself for being peacefully productive this ‘silly’ season. :)

In Ayurvedic medicine, health is all about balance. Any type of change we experience – such as the change of season or a busy period in life can aggravate the ‘Air’ element of the body, known as Vatta Dosha. Vata loves regularity, stillness and warmth. When the weather is windy, irregular, too hot or too cold and dry – Vatta can get upset and start to run a muck! The busyness of this time of year can throw this element out of whack. The good news is that it’s easily balanced and corrected;

~5 Simple Vatta Balancing Lifestyle Tips~

1. Drink Warm Water & Nourish Yourself:

Wake up and drink 2-4 cups of freshly boiled warm water with a slice of fresh ginger. This will warm your digestion and activate your parasympathetic nervous system, allowing you to start your day in a relaxed way. It’s the best!

Make sure you take some time to nourish your body. Start the day with a yummy grounding porridge, buckwheat pancakes or veggie soup! Look after your precious body on the inside and out.

2. Stretch/Move Your Body Daily:

In your room or lounge-room, move your body. Raise your arms up above your head and reach to the heavens. Stretch your body, breathing with your movement, becoming one with your body :). Move, unwind, and tune in. Do this for a minimum of 10 minutes. Stretching opens the body and allows us to be in tune and feel good in our skin. Movement releases endorphins (happy chemicals) in the brain, making you feel good. After moving the body it is much easier to sit in stillness and focus within to de-stress through meditation.

3. Meditate/Sit and Be with Your-self:

Find a comfy cushion, bolster, blanket or towel to sit on. Sit on the edge so that your knees are lower than your hips. If you are new to the concept of meditation, don’t worry. Everyone starts somewhere and now is the perfect time to begin. Sit with your spine straight to allow for proper flow of energy, then close down your eyes and simply focus on your breath. Allow thoughts to come and go. They are not important here. All that is important is your breath, and your focus inward. If you can do this for at least 10 min at the start of your day, it will set the scene for a peacefully productive day ahead. Meditation is transformational.

4. Massage Your Feet/Body 3 times per week:

Cold pressed Black sesame oil is traditionally the Ayurvedic oil of choice. If you don’t have it though, you can use organic cold pressed olive oil, almond oil or coconut oil. To prepare the oil for your self-massage, simply warm your oil by placing the bottle in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. Before you have your shower, massage the oil into your body. Oil is beautifully grounding and balancing. Your skin will eat it up and your nerves will too. Do this for 5 minutes then rinse off in a warm shower.

5. Take Some Deep Breathes:

Before you go out for the day and get into your work or your tasks… take 6 deep breathes. Write a note to yourself in your diary to remind you to move slowly. Remember that you don’t need to be superman or superwoman. You simply need to do your best and do everything with love. If there are things on your to do list that are not high priorities, then cross them off. Free up your time so you can focus on a realistic list of things to achieve. This is a hard one for the high achievers. You can do it though. :) There are 12 months next year to complete those tasks. Remember, there is no rush, everything in life happens in divine timing.

This season is all about looking after YOU – so that you can show up being present, clear and loving with your friends and family.

After all this is what is most important. Not how much we did, but how present we were.

“You give but little when you give of your possessions.

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

– Kahil Gibran

Be generous this holiday season, fill your own cup so that you can share abundantly with those around you!

…Remember, nothing great is every built overnight. It is regula and consistent acts of love, that contribute to creating long-term health, wellness and joy inside!

Shine on!

x Love, Lorien

Warm, nourish, soften, mmm – Let’s talk ‘Ayurvedic Daily Routine’

July 3, 2014 by Lorien

Let’s cut straight to the chase, to the juicy business of our day to day living.

Your body is a temple. It is sacred.

For your body, mind and spirit to function optimally, it must be cared for, loved, nourished nurtured and respected with consistency and regularity. Your body is relying on you to look after it. It will even talk to you when it is out of balance, to get your attention and make you stop, slow down, rest, have a cry of release and realise where you are really at.

In essence, you are a miracle and your body is the magical vessel that you have to express, shine, dance, sing, play, connect and experience the world and inter-react with.

In honour of your divine body, of all bodies, your incredible organs and wondrous nervous system that communicates and allows all actions, thoughts, movement, digestion, creativity, love and magic to take place within you ~ Ayurveda has some tips for us!

The ‘Daily Routine’ is a key ingredient in creating harmony, balance and wellness internally and externally.

I love these simple practices that slow the mind down, soothe the soul, nourish the body, mind and spirit on the deepest levels and provide an opportunity to connect within on a daily basis.

If you can only start with adding 1 of these 5 practices into you day to begin with, that will make a big difference in itself!

Without further ado… Let’s get to it:

Wake up, spit in the sink any gunk in your mouth, gently brush your teeth, scrape your tongue with a copper tongue scraper (copper conducts the toxins the best, or silver or gold). See here for Tongue Scraping Tutorial
Drink warm water with fresh ginger, lemon and honey (do not add honey if water is boiling, only when temp is warm). Or simply drink warm water to flush toxins, warm your digestive fire and hydrate your brain to start the day.
Self massage with organic black sesame oil. Warm the oil and apply to your body before you shower in the morning. Focus on the joints, massage in a circular motion and move from your feet to your head. A great practice for improving circulation, boosting the immune system, cleansing the lymphatic system, soothing and grounding the nervous system, nourishing the bones and muscle tissue and loving your body first thing in the morning or before bed at night. Have a warm shower afterwards, the heat will open your pores and allow the oil to penetrate deeper into the tissues offering greater nourishment and goodness to your cells! Yum! So good in autumn and winter particularly!
Eat something warm for brekky! Warm, smooth, light and soupy… A rule in Ayurveda is to eat your biggest meal in the middle of the day when the sun is the highest- and to eat light and easy to digest foods for breakfast and dinner to assist your body and allow for optimum digestion.
Massage your feet before bed with warm sesame oil to ground the nervous system and promote a very very deep and delicious sleep! …Also putting your legs up the wall, a yoga pose called the fountatin of youth or virparita karani that will nourish your adrenals and kidneys, restoring natural energy and allowing your body to balance and melt into a deep yummy sleep!

Incase your wondering about the ‘tongue scraping’… Here’s a little ‘tongue scraping’ video tutorial.

Have fun incorporating these beauties into your awareness and self-care, self-love regime! Your body will love you for it!

x Love, Lorien

Life changing daily practice – Tongue Scraping

May 9, 2014 by Lorien

Have you ever wondered what Tongue Scraping is all about?

Have you ever woken up with a coating on your tongue first thing in the morning?

Have you ever experienced bad breath and toxic build up in your body or noticed someone else’s?

…The ancient and simple Ayurvedic practice of Tongue Scraping is here to save the day! :)

This is such a wonderful simple daily routine.

I have been a tongue scraper for the past 10 years… and I don’t know where I’d be without it! :)

Enjoy this little piece of tongue scraping video inspiration I put together to inspire those of you who are still on the fence and clarify some points for those who are totally new to it.

For the wonderful folk who are already switched onto this wonderful simple practice, feel free to leave some of your own words of tongue scraping wisdom in the comments under the video, share your story, spread the tongue scraping love so that our fellow brothers and sisters can get in on this wonderful preventative, cleansing, satisfying practice! :)

x Love Lorien

Gentle Ayurvedic Morning Cleanse

February 9, 2013 by Lorien

When we sleep at night our body eliminates toxins and brings them to the surface to be removed.

Often we wake up and automatically swallow the ‘gunk’ that is in the mouth rather than spit it out, as we want to sleep in or just don’t feel like getting up.

When we do this, we are swallowing toxic build up that our body thoughtfully brought to the surface over night to be released! Oh my, not so pleasant.

There are many ways to gently cleanse this build up out of the body. There are herbal preparations that can be taken as well as treatments.

The most effective and lasting way to prevent poor digestion and toxic build up from occuring is to adopt a ‘daily lifestyle practice’, known in Ayurvedic medicine as ‘Din-Acharya’, or daily routine.

3 Simple Tips for Cleansing Toxins and Mainting Balance Daily:

As soon as you wake up in the morning, go to the bathroom and spit out the ‘gunk’ in your mouth that has accumulated during sleeping. Brush your teeth and scrape your tongue with a tongue scraper. (Copper tongue scrapers are found in most health food shops and are said to be the best as the copper conducts the toxins away from the tongue most effectively.) You will fall in love with tongue scraping!

Drink a cup of warm water with a squeeze of fresh Lemon juice, some Ginger grated or finely chopped and half a teaspoon of Raw Organic Honey. (Make sure the water is warm, not hot, as honey changes its structure when heated to high temperatures and can be poisonouse to the system. So make sure your water has cooled down and is warm when you add the honey.)

Give yourself time to move your body, go for a walk, do some Yoga, stretches or whatever your favorite activity may be. It is great to get outside and into nature first thing when the birds are still chirping and the sun is still rising. Exercising in the morning will flush your body and boost your digestive fire which will assist in the process of burning up any toxins that are built up in the channels. Follow your exercise with a swim or a shower to cleanse and refresh your body before you move onto having your breakfast.

Incorporating these practices into your daily morning routine might take some initial organisation to fit the exercise into your schedule and get used to the idea of ‘scraping’ your tongue, however the benefits will be worth it. Trust me. Within a short amount of time you can expect to notice your breathe smelling sweeter, your appetite coming back to life and that your bowels are working much much better.

Making sure the elimination systems of the body are functioning properly is a vital ingredient to long-term health and wellbeing.

Cleaning the body regularly, on a daily basis in simple (yummy) ways is like making sure your space is clear (your body) so that it can do exactly what it knows to do and function in a state of balance and wellness.

To healthy, happy elimination!

x Lorien