CREATE your own celebration box…
Coming soon – how to make your very own ‘CELEBRATION BOX’ filled with ‘birthday bunting’, celebratory table cloths and special items to help you CREATE and CELEBRATE!
x Mucho Mama – Naomi
Coming soon – how to make your very own ‘CELEBRATION BOX’ filled with ‘birthday bunting’, celebratory table cloths and special items to help you CREATE and CELEBRATE!
x Mucho Mama – Naomi
I am the founder of Mucho Mama and its my greatest joy to help mamas exchange overwhelm for the joy-filled life they were created for and…
get MOVING in their day,
get MINDFUL in their life,
get NOURISHED when they eat,
get LESS clutter in their home,
get LOWTOX in the their choices &
get CONNECTED with those they love.
If you are ready to exchange overwhelm and feeling heavy for a lighter load then this mini masterclass is designed to help you do just that. It will help you get a clear vision on how to get your mama-mojo back and begin the journey to turn your overwhelm into real JOY!
It usually sells for $89 but use the code LIGHTENYOURLOAD and you can dive in and get started for 90% off today!
Are you ready Mucho Mama – come join me by clicking here ‘get VISION mini masterclass’
Naomi – Mucho Mama
One of the most nourishing things you can do to make sure that you ‘don’t let motherhood make you lose your MINDfulness’ is to create space for rhythms in your life that help you to slow down each day.
I love the rhythm of a tea-time each afternoon. How lovely is simple the act of making a tea, let alone enjoying the delightful moment of savouring each sip.
Whether you order a drink from your favourite coffee shop or brew one yourself – try form a habit of taking 5 minutes to yourself each day and go slowly while you drink your choice of beverage.
Sit down and be still and read a book or magazine you love or just be present and focussed on what’s happening around you. Take your shoes off for a moment if you can and ground yourself while you nourish and nurture.
There are so many wonderful choices to enjoy for a tea-time from coffee, peppermint or herbal tea or even a traditional English tea if that’s what you fancy. My personal favourite is Chai tea brewed on almond milk and sweetened with coconut sugar and honey and I try enjoy it with as little interruption as possible – with three kids and a toddler that isn’t always doable but I try.
Brewed Chai recipe
To make a nourishing brewed chai simply put one teaspoon of blissful chai per person and then add one cup of milk per person to a saucepan or chai pot (i.e. if you were making chai fro 3 people you would use 3 tsp of chai tea leaves and 3 cups of milk).
Stir occasionally and once it has warmed (but be careful not to bring to the point of boiling) simply add one tsp coconut sugar per person and then add a teaspoon of honey to each mug. Then use a tea-strainer and pour chai over honey into the mug and stir to mix through.
Then sit down and enjoy every sip as best you can in the season you are in beautiful mama.
If you like a good chai then the ‘Blissful Herbs’ blissful chai is the most delicious I am yet to discover. I have included a link where to buy this tea below (not sponsored just want to share something I love!). Blissful herbs is known for her wonderful birthing teas but this one is nothing of that sort and is simply a wonderful blend of:
Caraway, Cardamom,Cinnamon,Cloves,Ginger, Nutmeg, Star Anise, Sweet Orange Peel, Lemon Zest, Chilli and either black tea OR Rooibos (I always choose rooibos so that the kids can enjoy it alongside me too – you simply let them know rooibos in instructions at check out!).
Vietnamese Rice Wrap Salad
Rice wraps are up there with my all time fav meal. Finding the time to wrap it all for everyone is quite an effort – so when my kids were little I created this rice wrap salad instead which is much quicker for a quick lunch (or dinner!).
I make my husband and mine up as a proper dressed salad with all ingredients on top but I leave the kids disassembled. They like to eat all the elements of the salad separately. One of my kids likes dressings so they can add some on if they like it, but often times their salad is dressed simply with olive oil and Herbamare.
Vietnamese Rice Wrap Salad – rice wraps without the wrap!
1 packet Vermicilli noodles
1 punnet of mini roma tomatoes
1 lebanese cucumber
1 carrot grated
1 medium-sized block of tofu fried in olive oil and seasoned with herbamare
coriander (optional for kids)
Dressing (optional for kids – ours prefer to have olive oil and salt on their noodles instead!)
1 lime (juice)
1/3 cups sweet chilli sauce
1 Tbls maple syrup or rice malt syrup
1 tsp tamari
The scene is all too familiar – kids dancing wildly, madly & loudly around my legs telling me they are hungry while I desperately peer into the pantry or freezer hoping something jumps out and says “I am dinner”. This is my ‘crazy patch’!
Often times this would turn into a quick phone call to the local Thai restaurant to save the day or in this case save the ‘crazy patch’. With recently making a goal to spend less on our food bill I knew that there just had to be another way!
Some weeks seemed to be delightfully absent of these crazy patches and I wondered why. It was on the weekends where I would find some time to meal plan, grocery shop and get ahead on some freezer meals for school lunches and our dinners that the week would roll out so much more smoothly! So now to avoid the ‘crazy patch’ I have created the ‘planning patch’ – where I deliberately set aside time on Sunday as well as during the week to plan my meals and help things roll more smoothly.
My daily ‘planning patch’ looks like this:
Get up early to pack school lunches & make a head start on breakfast before the kids wake up. If they sleep in (funny how 6:30am is now considered a sleep in!!!) then I will often try get dinner under way in the morning too! I might put a tagine on to cook while we eat breakfast and finish getting ready for the day. Then at 5pm I just pop some rice on and dinner is sorted! It’s amazing how the afternoon is always smoother when I have made dinner earlier in the day. And it means that we often can stay longer at the park which lets them build up a healthy appetite and helps avoid the common phrase “I don’t like it!” as they are sitting down to dinner…BONUS!
My Sunday ‘planning patch’ looks like this:
The Sunday planning patch is the foundation for the rest of the week. If I hope to cook dinner while the kids are eating breakfast then I need to be sure that all the ingredients are in the house and making a good plan on Sunday allows this to happen!
* Look through fridge and cupboard for what food items I already have that need using up and create a meal plan for the week. This also involves writing a grocery list for any items that I don’t already have
* Do a grocery shop for those items that I need for meal plan (and don’t buy anything thats not on it!!!!!!!)
* Send kids to the park for some quality time with their papa…
* Roughly organise pantry and fridge to throw out anything that I need to and then un-pack groceries into fruit bowl, fridge & pantry.
* Make a batch of muffins, muesli bars or biscuits for kids lunch boxes for the week!
* Make one or two meals that are freezer-friendly to turn to on those crazy afternoons instead of turning to my local Thai shop!
* Vacuum and mop floors thoroughly and do a quick once over in bathrooms…a clean and organised home always converts into a happier week in my experience!
When could you create a ‘planning patch’ in your week – I promise you that your hectic, crazy week will roll out more smoothly with a planning patch!
Below I have shared with you my favourite breakfast go to that will nourish you and your little ones and start your day off right so that you can get through any crazy patches that come your way!
DELISH overnight oats
For a delicious twist of this recipe – use orange juice instead of apple juice. It can easily be made dairy free by using coconut yoghurt.
3 cups rolled oats
500 mls milk (or nut milk)
250 ml cloudy apple juice
2 tbsp raw honey
2/3 cup of sultanas
4 tbsp dried apricots
1 1/2 cups natural yoghurt
2 medium apples (grated)
flaked almonds and fresh seasonal berries to serve
DIRECTIONS
Food in the Raw
Now I am not talking about eating my food in the ‘nude’ – rather I wanted to share with you some of my fav mostly raw food recipes that are totally scrumptious and quick to make too (which is brilliant as my little bambino is a cat napper some days and I can still usually have them made and enjoyed before she is again awake and ready to play) so I thought I would share them:
Lettuce salad wraps
The last three years when I would go to Melbourne to attend the Wellness Summit I would always find so much joy going to the most delicious resturaunt called The Vegie Bar https://www.vegiebar.com.au . They serve a lettuce wrap with a warmed side of jackfruit and whenever I can purchase some from a whole-food store it take this simple lettuce wrap to a whole new level. But most of the time I simply add the following to my lettuce and roll it into a wrap to enjoy!
Cos lettuce leaves
grated carrot
Sliced avacado
sliced capsicum
Sliced cucumber
lemon wedge
balsamic vinegar
Then place one of each topping in your lettuce leaf and dress with lemon and balsamic and roll it up and enjoy. In my mind you can never have too much grated carrot or too big a chunk of avocado slice in these little wraps!
Asian Carrot Avocado Salad (with ginger dressing)
This is seriously my favourite salad ever! Its such a quick and easy salad to make and even better, the dressing can be made in advance and added on just before you eat – so lends itself well to those healthy ‘foodie’ get togethers.
Salad:
4 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 shallot, sliced (white and 1 inch of green parts)
1/2 cup raw sesame seeds (with 2 Tbspoons set aside)
1 medium avacado, chopped
Dressing:
2 Tbsp linseed oil
3 Tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 Tbsp tamari sauce (or soya sauce)
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
1Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp rice syrup (maple syrup)
Toss: grate carrots and toss in a large bowl with parsley, cilantro, shallots and sesame seeds (reserving 2 Tbsp for later.) and set aside.
Blend: in a food processor, blend oil, lime juice, Tamara, ginger and ground coriander and rice syrup.
Combine: pour dressing over salad and toss well. Gently fold in avocado and sprinkle reserved sesame seeds on top before serving.
Chia Pudding –
This is just seriously so delish! Chia pudding is my go to dessert now for after kids have gone (the kids love them and we often have them for breakfast too but its sometimes nice to eat in silence!). I just love how nourished and good I feel after eating them! I often serve mine with pear and cashews cream (blended up in food processor) and fresh berries and macadamia’s but seriously you could pretty much go crazy and put anything on top and it would totally rock!
Chia Pudding:
90 g chia seeds
600 g almond milk
4 Tbsp Maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Place all ingredients in a saucepan and stir while heating briefly till mixture warms a little and ensures there isn’t any lumps. Then put into a glass container and let rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving.
Cashew cream:
2 cup raw cashews (soaked in warm water for 2 hours and drained if you have time)
1 container of pears in natural juice
blend in a food processor until smooth and creamy
Serve layered with chia and pear cream and top with fresh berries and macadamia nuts
So go and enjoy eating in the RAW…with your clothes on!