JulieBhosaleAchive

It hit me like a ton of bricks today. It is always there. That is grief right, but sometimes it sneaks up on me and just whacks me cold in the chest. Christmas is by far the worst time of year and today was no exception. My mother is very much alive. She just has not really been in my life since I left home at 18 and not been in the boys lives despite my best efforts. She was asked if she wanted to host or just attend my baby shower when I was pregnant with Arjun (my first son) but did not want to do either. She was invited to the hospital when in labour, but never came. She has been asked how she would like to be involved with the boys but says she is only ‘interested’. She did not even know I had given birth to Sahan (second son) until he was eight weeks old as she never called or asked or came to visit. She lives less than 20mins drive away but has never looked after them, never spent more than an hour at a prearranged visit with them – the amount of times I could count on one hand....

Knowing how to correctly store and look after food products can give you a lot of confidence to buy it and use it! Coconut oil will change its state from solid to liquid in different temperatures and how to correctly store it is something I commonly get asked about. My home country New Zealand is typically quite cool, temperature wise, for most of the year with the exception of a couple of months in summer...though this summer is shaping up to be one of the hottest in many years. As a result I am so used to working with coconut oil in solid form, however in it’s natural state in the islands it is always liquid. You may sometimes find it in an almost jelly-like state, somewhere between a liquid and a solid If you check out some of the internet forums on coconut oil and you will see quite a divide on this = some have never seen it solid and some have never seen it liquid. Below are some good guidelines on the storage of coconut oil especially in the warmer months. Shelf Life The great ne...

Ingredients 400g (or 2 small jars (195g) of almond butter 8 Tb of coconut oil (well softened) 2 heaped spoons of honey 1 dash of vanilla essence Note: You can easily make this with half the mixture (almond butter can be expensive) you just need a small tin to set (if you want it high) or personally I found when I did a thin layer in the square cake tin it was more than enough as this is quite filling! Directions 1.Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix together. 2.Pour into a small tin lined with baking paper. 3.Freeze for about 15mins (or place in the fridge for an hour). 4.Slice and serve! Due to the coconut oil (especially in summer) I would keep this in the fridge (or even the freezer still) xxx Dr Julie Bhosale

We are now firmly in the thick of the festive season. This brings along with it a lot of family and social occasions. As many of you know I spend a significant portion of my time presenting and being in front of people. Getting presentable for such engagements is not an easy task when covered in children! This year in particular I have spent a lot of time on the road, little monkeys in tow and very much awake when getting ready in the mornings. I wanted to share with you something that was really invaluable in helping me not only look presentable but feel really good too. Previously, the only make up lessons or guidance I ever had was back in 2006 (yes nearly 10 years ago) at a shop in the mall. The Body Shop from memory. One of those 'come in get your make up done and purchase some products' experience. Yes 10 years ago! It was fair to say my make up collection was a little worse for wear and something that pretty much came at the bottom of the priority list with the arrival o...

I am on a little bit of a roll at the moment with creating healthy alternatives to my favourite chocolatey treats. This recipe required no baking at all, and uses Nairn's Chocolate Oat Biscuits to form a healthy base with significantly less sugar than other biscuits. Perfect for Christmas, or a special occasion or just a little something after dinner. Ingredients: Base 1 Box of Chocolate Nairns Oat Biscuits 100g of butter Filling 200g Dark chocolate 500g Cream Cheese 2 Heaped Tb of sour cream 1 tsp of vanilla essence Whipped cream to top (optional) Directions: 1. If you have not done so already take the cream cheese and butter out as these need to be at room temperature. 2. To make the base, add the Chocolate Nairns Oatcakes and butter into a food processor and pulse together. 3. Press into a cup cake tin - I find a flexi-bake works the best (you can use muffin size or even the mini-muffin size). Place in the fridge while preparing the filling. 4. To make the filling, first melt th...

Sleep..... Do you have a far off memory of what that was? Five years and counting and sleep still is not what is was like in LBC (life before children). However that first year when bubs arrives into this world hands down takes the cake when it comes to sleep deprivation. An area of sleep for little ones especially before their first birthday which is not often discussed is the relationship between sleep and food. Food of course for babies is in the form of milk (breastmilk or formula) but also the process of moving on to solid food. Now I do have a whole chapter on this relationship in my book The Nourished Baby AND if I am really honest I could write an entire book on the science of sleep - period - for babies (I just might be you know!). However as sleep deprivation is such a challenge for parents I hope the following tips will give you a few pointers and things to try straight away. Sleep is very much hormonally driven. There are a lot of hormonal processes which stimulate the body...

I love a good brownie....actually I love anything that comes in a 'chocolate' form....so I am always on a mission to create new healthy versions of my fav sweet treats. You just have to look through my dessert blog recipes to know this!. A healthy brownie recipe has been on my 'hit-list' and finally after a few attempts I nailed this on the weekend. I really wanted to create a brownie recipe that was dairy-free as many breastfeeding mums I know can end up cutting this out to help with reflux but in fact it turned out even more healthy than I thought...as this beauty is dairy-free, gluten-free, free of refined sugar (just some dates for sweetness) AND better yet is packed full of good fats, iron (in the nuts) with some anti-inflammatory properties from coconut and coconut oil! If you are unsure about coconut oil you can read my earlier blog on the low down on this here.  I think you will be really surprised by how easy this is - that is always my thing with recipes they ...