my body is my temple

I'm a little obsessed with salads at the moment. If you follow me on instagram you will more than likely see me post pictures of them several times a week, this is because I'm on a mission to shed the extra 10kg I put on after the birth of Jemima almost 14 years ago and never lost. Clearly I don't have very good willpower when it comes to food because its taken me 14 years to get my shit together and find the inner strength to finally lose it!
Saying that I am not on a diet as such I am simply eating the cleanest possible way without any processed food whatsoever, grains, sugar etc, smaller portions 3 times a day.
Bland food doesn't do it for me, I can't eat lettuce leaves alone I need different texture's and flavours to keep me interested. So this is a rough base of the kind of salad I eat most days with the added bonus of a few delicious things that are on high rotation in my house every week. My perfect balance salad is one I make at least once a week or every time I make my chicken in a pot or bone stock.

my perfect balance salad

what you need and how its done:

a couple of handfuls of kale - lightly steamed and then cooled and chopped roughly
the same of cos or iceberg lettuce chopped roughly
1 carrot grated
a tablespoon of cultured veg
a little grated raw milk cheese - I like d'alpage
150g of poached chicken or leftover roast chicken or chicken from your stock chopped into bite size pieces
for the dressing I use a little apple cider vinegar and a little olive oil, salt pepper and chilli (optional)
prep all your ingredients and arrange in a bowl just like my photo
pour the dressing over and eat

and another salad that I love and so will you:

my crunchy sweet and sour salad:

what you need and how its done:

a couple of handfuls of crunchy salad leaves like baby cos or iceberg, rocket would be yummy too
1 carrot grated or peeled the whole way through into ribbons
half a granny smith apple sliced as finely as possible
a little raw cheese grated finely
a sprinkling of activated macadamias cut in half
dressed with the dressing above - apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt pepper and chilli (optional)

My body is my temple.

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All recipes and photos by Michelle Schoeps

raw chocolates

I could make raw chocolates with my eyes closed, I literally haven't stopped making them for months.
I make them most weeks for my kids school lunches and last week I was coerced by my middle one to come to her school and teach her class how to make them. Last night I made 100 of them for girls and boys brigade wonder 101 charity fete today.


So its safe to say I'm chocolated out.
Because they're so easy I made recipe cards that we gave out with the chocolates, so the kids could go home and make them themselves.


ingredients;
100g loving earth cacao butter
6 tablespoons cacao powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
a decent pinch of Himalayan salt
2-3 tablespoons of maple syrup or rice malt
2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons of broken up bits of frozen raspberries or/as well, rice bubbles, ground or chopped nuts, frozen orange segments
silicone chocolate moulds or mini cupcake cases



dead easy, all you do is;


melt the cacao butter in a bowl over simmering water till liquid
add cacao powder, cinnamon, vanilla, salt and maple and whisk well till everything is well combined
turn the element off and add the coconut and mix again


take your moulds and put one teaspoon of your liquid chocolate into each individual mould and then a few frozen raspberry pieces, orange, rice bubbles or nuts and finally one teaspoon of chocolate on top to just fill the mould
pop the moulds onto a tray and into the freezer for 20min
remove de-mould and keep in the fridge


this week I'll be showing 4 year olds how to make them, next week I'm making something new.

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All recipes and photos by Michelle Schoeps