homemade epic hot chocolate
- on: November 22, 2015
- By Gabi
- theme: family life, from our kitchen, handmade
0
Who doesn’t love hot chocolate, right? Since we tried Jamie Oliver’s homemade epic hot chocolate recipe, we haven’t looked back. I would not go for the store bought anymore. This is the one and only recipe we use at home and everyone in our family loves it. It’s fun to make it from scratch too, kids love to help with grating the chocolate and eating the little pieces left. It’s thick and simply amazing.
We just did ours yesterday and put the mix in a large glass jar. We multiplied the recipe by 4 so it will last for a while.
Jamie Oliver’s Epic Hot Chocolate
- 2 tablespoons Horlicks
- 2 tablespoons cornflour
- 3 tablespoons icing sugar
- 4 tablespoons quality organic cocoa
- 100 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) , finely grated
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 2 pints (1 pint = 2 cups) semi-skimmed milk
Pour the milk into a large pan, and bring almost to the boil over a medium heat.
Meanwhile, add all the chocolate mix ingredients to a large jar and give it a good shake to combine. You need around 10 heaped tablespoons of the chocolate mix for this amount of milk. Simply spoon the chocolate mix into the hot milk, give it a good whisk and leave to bubble away for a few minutes before serving. You’re looking for that gorgeous, thick, almost claggy, knockout texture.
homemade lip balm
- on: November 21, 2015
- By Gabi
- theme: aromatherapy | essential oils, creative living, handmade, natural, self care
- 2
I finally did it.
After pinning a lot of recipes on my essential oils pinterest board and reading through some awesome websites, I took a leap and made my first homemade skin care product. A lip balm. Ms. K has always dry lips during the fall and winter months and because it’s getting cold outside, this was the perfect project and introduction into making homemade goodies. I found several great recipes for lip balms and at the end decided to combine them. So this is what I used:
Homemade lip balm
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon of organic coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon of organic beeswax pastilles
- 1 tablespoon of organic cocoa butter (shea butter can be also used)
- 1 teaspoon of sweet almond oil (different carrier oils can be used as well, such as grapeseed, avocado, olive etc)
- few drops of vitamin E (I think I did about 5)
- 5 or so drops of lavender essential oil
- Using a double boiler (two pots of different sizes), combine the coconut oil, beeswax pastilles and cocoa butter and heat up until melted.
- Once fully melted, remove from the heat and stir in the almond oil, vitamin E and essential oil of your choice. Stir the mix until everything is completely combined together.
- Pour the mix into lip balm containers of your choice (we used tins but you can use also tubes) and let it cool down. Once the balm has hardened, it’s ready to use.
This batch made 4 lip balms which we put into 0.5 oz tins. You can multiply the amount of ingredients accordingly.
Note for next time – instead of using two pots I will use pot and glass measuring cup which will be easier to pour the mix from. I used 1/2 tablespoon “cup” for pouring my mix into the tins.
The beauty of homemade stuff is that you can experiment with ingredients of your liking. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are using peppermint essential oil in their balms, but I don’t like the taste/flavour of it so I didn’t include it in ours. Katrin likes vanilla so we added a few drops of vanilla extract (regular for baking) just for the taste. Next time we will experiment with honey as well. The balms turned out well. I love the smell and taste of it and so does Katrin. Guys don’t use lip balms too often but I bet when they will need them, they will be using them as well.
It was such a fun, easy and very quick to do project. If you have any favourite homemade goodies recipes, please share.
Leave a comment...sometime in November
- on: November 18, 2015
- By Gabi
- theme: aromatherapy | essential oils, creative living, everyday life, family life
- 0
Well, hello there!
This place has been quite for a while so I think it’s time to dust the corners and make an update on what’s going on with us. To be honest, not too much is going on but at the same time a lot is going on. The last couple of weekends were pretty hectic with cyclocross races and practices but luckily the cycling season is almost over and our routine will finally slow down. I can’t wait!
I love this time of the year when it’s cold outside so we get a chance to get together at home, play board games and just relax. I know we won’t sit on our butts the whole winter but it is nice to take a break from all the programs and schedules and just enjoy some good family time.
Kids started (finally!) drinking tea which makes me so happy. We prepare our tea into a ceramic teapot (which I brought from my home country) and make this our little ritual. They really enjoy it. I bought an advent tea calendar – 24 days of tea from David’s tea and can’t wait to taste new tea flavors with them every day during December! It’s definitely a fun way how to try different teas without buying it in bulks and to discover some new favorites.
I still can’t believe that in just little bit over a month Christmas will be here! Kids have started their wish list already and I did mine as well. I signed up at Young Living Essential Oils community and ordered the Premium Starter kit. It’s arrived more than a week ago but I’m saving it for Christmas so you can bet that I’m counting the days until I will be able to open the box and try my new diffuser!
I’m new and not to essential oils. I have been using oils for several years now but mostly in my aroma lamp. Time to time I use lavender for burns, scratches or any other skin problems but that’s about it. So I’m really excited to start changing our home to less/no chemical one. I’m in a researching mode right now and trying to get as much information as possible. I already bought some rollerball bottles and plan on making my own mixes. The next on the list is a hand soap and house cleaning products which will be chemicals free. Luckily there are tons and tons of recipes online and also an amazing local group of ladies which do get-togethers and lessons. If you have any favourite recipes or tips, please don’t hesitate to share with me.
I’ve also started knitting again. It’s still a huge learning curve for me but I promised Ms. K that I will make her a cowl so I’m trying my best. And if I screw up, I know one creative expert who will save me from disaster of destroying the whole thing.
So there you go. It’s a tea time, aromatherapy and knitting kind of a day and I wouldn’t change a thing on it. I might squeeze a yoga class in there tonight as well.
Hope life is treating you well in your corner of the world.
Leave a comment...for the love of photography
- on: September 11, 2015
- By Gabi
- theme: everyday life, photography, sport | triathlon
- 0
There is no secret that our family is very active in sports. We love to be outside and enjoy the beautiful nature which surrounds us. We are so lucky that our kids share the same love for outdoors as us, parents.
Katrin is now old enough to be a part of the same cycling team as Patrik has been for the last two years. She has joined him for a cyclocross program this fall and loves it. The team is lead by the best coaches, professional athletes and even some Olympic champions so we know they are in the best hands. The kids give it everything during their practices and are having fun even through the sweat and pain. Cyclocross is quite challenging and one has to be in a pretty good shape to ride the bike on the hills and carrying it over obstacles.
I took few photos with my phone during their practice yesterday and I love how these turned out. The silhouettes on the hill in a sunset just make me happy.
This is Katrin following her coach on the course.
And Patrik’s first practice of the season.
Sometimes in the rush of our daily lives we almost forget how important it is to nurture our own souls with things we love. For me it is photography. I love to look at life through the lens and freeze the special moments.
Whatever it is what makes you happy, I hope you will find at least a few minutes this weekend to focus on it.
Leave a comment...the better you are
- on: August 25, 2015
- By Gabi
- theme: inspiration, random thoughts, self care
- 0
The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything:the better you are with your loved ones,the better you are with your enemies,the better you are at your job,the better you are with yourself.~ Bill Murray
five on friday
- on: August 07, 2015
- By Gabi
- theme: five on friday
- 0
The online world is full of great stuff. These are five things which caught my eye in the last couple of days:
:: this video about changing childhood from generation to generation
:: the importance of documenting your everyday life
:: I think it’s time to go through my handmade folder and start thinking about some projects for fall. Gets me excited every time.
:: I can’t wait for Brené’s book to be released!
:: will be trying these soon because those sound delicious
Happy Friday!
Leave a comment...around here. right now.
- on: July 13, 2015
- By Gabi
- theme: around here, self care
- 0
Right now I am…
Listening to kids screaming upstairs. They love each other one minute and in a split of a second they fight each other. The never-ending circle of sibling-hood.
Feeling overwhelmed and confused. I’ve lost my job last week and right now I need to figure out what is the next step for my career. I have a rough idea but don’t know how to get there.
Reading Chasing Grace and photography tutorials.
Planning our family’s mini staycation. We supposed to go away but due to the wildfires we cancelled and will be exploring new places locally.
Training for my upcoming biking race (87km) which will take a place this Sunday.
Practicing patience. Being suddenly stay-at-home mom with two kiddos and one active dog during the summer months brings not just a lot of joy but also a lot of conflict resolving and day to day schedules planning.
Choosing living in the moment, being more patient and family above everything.
This post by Kelly Rae Roberts is a perfect lesson about ourselves. Exactly what I needed to read at this moment.
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