The calm before the storm..

Dar-Tal-Kaptan B&B, Ghasri Gozo

It’s already a week ago that we went to Gozo for our last little weekend trip before baby arrives and I don’t want to miss the chance to praise the cute gem which we found in Ghasri:  B&B Dar-Tal-Kaptan. Don’t miss to scroll down further for a yummy smoothie recipe and lots of book tips and recommendations how to help pregnancy the natural way.

Review B&B Dar-Tal-Kaptan
From the moment of your arrival, the hosts Peter & Warren spoiled us with their friendliness, a super cosy home with spacious rooms and lots and lots of attention to detail all over. The rooms are all decorated in different themes (ours was Serenity <3) and offer lots of privacy and comfort. We had our own little kitchenette with water, teas, coffee and a bowl of fresh fruit in the fridge waiting for us. The views from our room and own terrace were just lush and green and perfect for a daily gently yoga session in the morning. Blissfulness and calm are the words which come up my mind when I remember these moments…

Breakfast let my foodie heart beat faster. Next to all the usual things like cold cuts and cheeses, fresh fruit and veg, yoghurts, muesli etc Warren made us a different healthy smoothie with interesting combinations in his Vitamix and freshly prepared eggs every day. When you decide to just chill and read at the pool like us (see book tips below), you’ll get cold flavored water with fresh herbs from the garden (think rosemary and lemons) and a little surprise during the day like slices of frozen melon (such a simple and yummy idea!) or an organic apple sorbet.  Peter and Warren are always up for an interesting chat when you feel like it but give you total privacy at the same time. With joy I remember inspiring conversations about food, yoga and traveling… 🙂 It was the perfect place for us to just relax in their wonderful garden, paddle on a lilo in the refreshing pool or reading on a sun bed in the shade and enjoying the sound of the palm trees in the wind and the green around us.

To guarantee absolute relaxation the B&B generally has a no child policy but when you book all 3 rooms you can bring children which we’ll definitely try to organize with our friends in the future.

Thanks for an absolutely wonderful weekend, guys! We’ll surely remember it forever and will try to come again soon 🙂

The Calm Before The Storm Smoothie
Of course I also had to recreate a bit of a twisted version of Warren’s smoothies, so here comes a yummy new recipe for a healthy smoothie.

Next to lots of goodieness from organic wheatgrass powder (alkalizing), cinnamon (good for digestion), I added my chocolate pregnancy vitamin protein powder, so if you’re not pregnant please take raw cacao and a protein powder of your choice instead (e.g. pea or hemp)

What you need..
(1 portion)

• 1/2 a banana (if you don’t have one at home, I always keep chopped up frozen ones in the fridge – you never know when you feel like the next raw banana ice cream hehe..)
• 1 cup of milk of your choice (I used organic brown rice but you can take almond, soy, oat or even organic cow’s milk if you drink it)
• 3 tablespoons of chocolate protein powder (I used this pregnancy powder throughout the whole pregnancy which was great, but you can also just use your favorite protein powder and add 2 teaspoons of raw cacao)
• 2 tablespoons of wheatgrass (or any other greens like spirulina, chlorella etc.)
• 2 pinches of cinnamon

What to do..
Easy peasy – put it all in your blender, mix for a minute and enjoy 🙂

 

Books and other pregnancy tips

Book tip: Bountiful, beautiful, blissful

Bountiful, Beautiful, Blissful: Experience the Natural Power of Pregnancy and Birth with Kundalini Yoga and Meditation
This book is pure bliss and positivity for the bump, heart and soul, even if you’re not into yoga and mediation – I promise. Recommended by my lovely Prenatal Yoga Malta teacher Sarah at the wonderful freemyme in Sliema.

The Gentle Birth Method: The Month-by-month Jeyarani Way Programme
Lots of helpful tips about visualization, relaxation, nutrition and especially holistic recommendations for each week e.g. which areas of the body to work on with reflexology. Talking of reflexology: if you’re lucky to be in Malta go and get some appointments with Cat from Butterfly Therapies, nothing makes you calmer and more centered 🙂

Die Hebammensprechstunde (freely translated “Consultation-hour with a midwife”)
Recommended by German speaking friends this book is like the bible of natural oriented midwives. Full of tips about herbs, teas, essential oils, homeopathy etc. So so happy I listened and bought it! So far in German only which is a real pity – maybe I should approach the author and propose to market it in English speaking countries 😉 Many of the herbal tea and oil mixes you can even buy in pharmacies in Austria and Germany so I asked my mum to send me some. But at least I found some good sources for homeopathy and essential oils here in Malta as well if you’re looking for some get in touch with the lovely homeopath Ashley from Tigne Holistic Centre or the always helpful Charlene from Soap Cafe.

The New Contented Little Baby Book: The Secret to Calm and Confident Parenting
Only in the beginning stages and partly a bit extreme but I get the idea of introducing a routine and will maybe take out some elements (some others definitely not 😉

This list of recommendations would not be complete without mentioning Robert Grech from Osteopathy Malta who helped me several times with an existing hip issue which came up again during my pregnancy and was sorted out completely within a few appointments. Yep, you don’t have to suffer physically, just because you’re pregnant – just get help and do something against it!

Also, thank you to Dini Martinez, a lovely friend, yoga teacher and experienced doula who travels the world with her family on a sailing boat (check out Sailing Yoga Family) for holding a great workshop on pregnancy and birth a few months ago which was really inspiring and helpful, too!

Last but not least I also want to say that I’m really impressed and positively surprised by the 7-week-parentcrafts-course organized by the Malta Midwives which is available for free at Mater Dei Hospital. I didn’t expect a lot and took out heaps and heaps of great information. Keep up the great job ladies!

What a network of wonderful people I have in my life, aye? Feeling really blessed and grateful to have you all here on this little island ❤

Now all I can say is that I’m super excited and I hope all these preparations will help our big event ahead and maybe help some of you, too. Of course you can never really be fully prepared and everything can always go differently all the time but in the end I think it helps to know what’s gonna happen, what you can do to help to do it the natural way and to tell yourself you prepared yourself as good as you can.

Let’s just hope it will all go well with the final spurt, birth and afterwards and I’ll definitely keep you posted.. One thing I know for sure, it was an amazing process and experience so far and I’m super grateful for all the love around me (you know who you are!), all the things I learned so far and look forward to the new chapter ahead!

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch with me via the blog or the nadisunshine FB page.

 

Lots of love & good vibes, especially to all the other mummies to be out there ❤
N xxx

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My favorite kind of eggs: A healthy hearty breakfast hash

Since I tried this dish a couple of weeks ago it has been a star in our kitchen, especially on weekends. Ideally you get local, organic or at least free range eggs – not only if you compare the colour of the egg yolk you’ll immediately see the difference to normal eggs and they have a much better flavour, but also they are much healthier than barn or cage eggs.

I’ve spent the last couple of days recovering at home and I can definitely observe getting better day by day by gauging my desire to start cooking again myself. Luckily there are some healthy options around here which deliver their yumminess home or at least offer their food for take away (beg your friends or partner to bring you some). Main thing: Don’t let being sick and weak drag you down and make you tempted to eat chunk. Especially those days you and your body need the nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants etc. more than ever! It’s so important to make the best out of those times… listen to interesting podcasts, watch documentaries or movies you’ve always wanted to see, meditate, read and just give yourself lots of rests and quiet time to get back on track. Another lesson I learned this time, it can also be wonderful to be taken care of and looked after. Thanks to my darling P on this note ❤

Anyways, today is the first day I feel my culinary spirits reawaken! After one of my lovely friends even spoilt me and delivered my organic veg and freshly baked spelt bread home (lucky me ❤ ), I’m dying to use this lovely kale I got again. (Did I mention I got soooo hooked on it? I know, it’s quiet late to join the hype, but things take a bit longer here in Malta – hehe!). So, tomorrow is a public holiday and I decided if I am a good girl today and rest and be quiet, tomorrow will be my first cooking day again and it shall start with this super yummy bfast hash. Try it! I hope you’ll like it as much as my love, friends and I do!

Btw, the loveliest home baked bread you can easily make yourself with one of my favorite recipes of the healthy food blog My New Roots. Yep, it’s called Life-Changing Loaf of Bread and it was indeed a life changer for me as it’s so easy that I now bake my own bread on a regular basis which I’ve never done before. Thanks for that, Sarah Britton! You continue to be one of my favorite food bloggers in the world ❤

What you need….
(serves 2 or more – just take more eggs accordingly)

• 1 bunch of kale or any other greens like chard, spinach etc. (always go organic if you can, if you can’t at elast soak them in water with seasalt and apple cider vinegar to get rid of the pesticide residues), roughly torn in pieces
• 1 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 red onion, 1 garlic, chopped (optional)
• other veg you’d like to add e.g. tomatoes, pepper (optional – play with them :))
• 2 organic eggs (or more)
• salt, pepper (I like cayenne), cumin (optional)
• some coconut oil
• sumac to sprinkle it on top
• Organic bread (I love spelt) (optional)

What to do…

Start melting the coconut oil in a large pan on medium heat and fry first the onions, then garlic. When they start getting nice and glassy, add the diced sweet potatoes, roast a bit and then add the kale. If you use chard or spinach you add it a bit later as kale takes longer to get soft. Season with salt and pepper to your taste and cook it for a couple of minutes. Now make little nests in the veg and crack an egg in each. Put on a lid so the heat and moisture can spread inside the pan to cook the egg. Take it off after 2min, check if the egg white got fully white and solid. Don’t wait too long so the egg yolk stays nice and runny. Give it another round of salt and pepper, sprinkle with sumac and serve with some nice bread!

Enjoy & take good care of yourself & your body cause it is our temple!
Love & sunshine,
Nxxxx

 

 

 

 

Our favorite morning muesli mix

What do you eat as your first meal of the day? Nothing? Coffee? A quick croissant on the way to work or a pre-made sandwich from the corner shop? Well, we’ve all been there and I’m not saying that a nice, lavish brunch should generally be banned. But: on an everyday basis we try to start our day healthily. Sure, it has to be quick – I fully agree. But it should also give me a boost for the day and do my body something good 🙂 Therefore me and my lovely have created our very own special muesli mix.

Since my last detox I kept on eating oats for breakfast. The contain a lot of fibre and keep the guts working (pssst! – that’s also good for people whose bowls don’t move enough if you know what I mean). Besides, they have ton of other health benefits which you can read here and if you wish you can also get them gluten free. In addition to the oats we mix lots of other yummy ingredients and super foods which surely all heard of like chia seeds, goji berries, maca powder, cacao nibs and so on. Just choose what you like and play with different combinations!

To keep it simple in the mornings, we just prepare a recycled box or big jar of our special bfast muesli mix and keep it ready in the drawer. Like this you only have to get your bowl, take a few table spoons of the muesli mix and top it up with hot water or dairy free milk like coconut or almond milk before you have your shower. You can also put it on the hob for a couple of minutes then it’s creamier like a porridge. Chop up a piece of fresh fruit or two (we like apple, fresh Maltese peaches or nectarines, pomegranate or whatever you get locally and is in season) and either cook it with the muesli or use it as a topping. Add a tiny bit of oil to get the best out of your ingredients and mix it. Then take your time to get ready for the day – in the meantime the muesli mix can soak up the liquid. You can also do that over night -that’s what everyone calls “overnight oats”.
If you do it fresh in the morning it sometimes soaks up so quickly that you have to add a tiny bit more liquid. By the time you’re ready, your muesli will be perfect to enjoy and give you the best start to the day! If you’re in a total rush you can also just put it in a jar and simply take it with you. Easy peasy 🙂

So far, all our guests fell in love with it – so we thought it’s time to write up the recipe!
(for our German speaking friends I chose the photo with the original handwritten recipe)

What you need….
(amounts depending on the size of your box, play with it!)

• Oats (about 50%, that’s the base)
• Chia seeds
• Whole almonds
• Flax seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Goji berries
• Dried cranberries, mulberries, apple etc. (whatever you have and like)

Possible superfood additions

• Cacao nibs
• Maca powder
• Baobab powder
• Bee pollen

Possible toppings:

• Cinnamon
• Coconut flakes
• Raw cacao powder

At the very end:

• A tiny bit of oil (I use cold pressed flax seed oil cause of the great amounts of omega 3 but you can also use coconut which tastes much nicer 😉
• Fresh fruit
• Hot water or dairy free milk

What to do…

Mix all ingredients in a big box or jar (apart from the toppings). When you wanna make it, take out a few table spoons per person (seems little but soaks up nicely), top it up with hot water or dairy free milk, let it stand for a bit (10min minimum, no maximum) and finally add some fruit, a drizzle of oil and toppings of your choice.
If you make a warm version, which is lovely in winter, throw it all in a little pot and let it cook gently for a few minutes – warm bfast here we come!

As I said, play with the ingredients – you can add or skip stuff and see what you like best. Only the oats I wouldn’t skip as they are the base for a nicely creamy comfort muesli.

Enjoy and have some great energetic mornings!

Love, N xx