Mocha-Banana Breakfast Smoothie

Breakfast is one of my favourite meals of the day, and will often see me in the kitchen making some annoyingly elaborate concoction, while my husband rolls his eyes and accuses me of overcrowding the dishwasher to make yet another ‘complicated breakfast’.

Over the last few weeks though, I haven’t had much of an appetite in the morning – but unfortunately my tendency towards low blood sugar means I usually need to eat something ‘proper’ to keep it in check (honestly, my blood sugar is sometimes like the beast lying dormant within, ready to explode in hanger at a moment’s notice…). On one such morning I also wanted coffee, albeit decaf. And so, the mocha-banana breakfast smoothie was born, with a little hidden veg. It’s a coffee-and-healthy-breakfast all in one, summer-friendly start to the day.

As we head off for a family holiday on Tuesday, this will be my last post for the year. I hope for all of you to have a lovely holiday season, but I’m also thinking of those who find this time of year difficult – because it can also be a fraught time, can’t it?
Take care,
Erin xx Continue reading →

Autumn Spiced Hot Chocolate: For your next camping trip (or to keep in the pantry for your next Netflix binge!)

A couple of weeks ago, we went on our first overnight family camping trip. It was also MY first camping trip. The idea of sleeping rough, barely separated from The Elements has never appealed to me. All that dirt. Those uncomfortable stones. The wind, argh! For years, I’ve rejected my husband’s suggestions that we go hang out in a tent.

Then he managed to catch me at the right time. Knowing that I’ve been trying to slow down, to make time to read and write again, he pitched it in just the right way: camping in peace and quiet, free from obligations, sitting next to a fire reading my book and writing in my journal. He finally won me over. We did a night away in a valley just out of Canberra in a quiet camping ground.  Continue reading →

How do you develop habits? Plus, a Summer Mango, Maca, Macadamia Smoothie

I quite like personality quizzes. I’m curious about people, so I’m drawn to anything that helps me to understand my own and others’ behaviours. Sometimes, this can see me digress into doing useless quizzes like; ‘Which Harry Potter Character would you be?’ or ‘How long would you survive on Game of Thrones?’ (Not long. I’m not ruthless enough.)

A while back, a friend sent me this quiz, about the four tendencies of developing habits. I also recently listened to Brooke McAlary’s podcast with Gretchen Rubin, who designed the quiz. Unlike the Buzzfeed quizzes, this one is truly interesting – it helped me to understand why I’ve been successful at forming some habits but not others – and that this is inherently related to how I went about establishing those habits, rather than the habit itself. I came out as an Obliger, which essentially means I meet outer expectations and resist inner expectations, explaining why I’ve always been so terribly bad at exercising, unless I’m accountable to or doing it with someone else. Additionally, I also have rebel responses to this – periods of time when I become resentful and burnt out, and then stop ‘obliging’ altogether. Continue reading →