Weekday Breakfasts

Good Day Everyone,

Our breakfast eating habits in Japan are somewhat different to Singapore. In Singapore, we would start the day with a fresh juice (e.g. green apple, cucumber, celery, carrot and fresh ginger), however, as our juicer was on it's last legs we didn't bring it with us to Japan, thinking we'd pick up a new one. Once here though, we realised that the voltage is completely different and given that juicers are quite the investment (and electronic items are more expensive in Japan!), we didn't want to buy one which we then couldn't use once we left Japan. Also there's no guarantee that had we brought our juicer it would have worked, given that my hairdryer and GHD straightening irons wont work here. So now we start our day with hot water with fresh lemon juice, ginger and honey. This is a great way of hydrating the body after a nights sleep and, on an empty stomach, it's also a great detox.

I don't know about you, but what we eat for breakfast during the week tends to be quite different to the weekends. During the week, we like to eat something that is nutritious and not too heavy (hubby and I find it difficult to eat much in the mornings as we are not morning people), but just as important, quick and easy to make. On the weekend we take things more leisurely and make something that's a bit more complex and filling as it often ends up being brunch, rather than just breakfast.

If you follow me on Instagram then you will have seen the numerous photos I post of my smoothie bowls and that's what we eat most weekdays. They're very quick and easy to make, and a great way of incorporating fruit into our diet (which is important to me as my hubby isn't much of a fruit eater). We make ours quite thick and then top them with lots of nuts, seeds and even more fruit which is why we eat them out of a bowl. In a blender these take just a few seconds to whiz together. Unfortunately, our blender broke when we left Singapore and we've not replaced it in Japan for the aforementioned reason. Strangely though, our little hand blender does work with the voltage in Japan and so that's what we currently use. It's not ideal as the smoothies are always a little on the chunky side but it'll do for now.

A typical smoothie bowl

Smoothie bowl toppings

When I first started making smoothie bowls I was using regular milk, then I moved on to natural yoghurt, but as I started to reduce my dairy intake (for health reasons) I moved onto almond milk. If I have too much dairy it can aggravate my arthritis but I find it almost impossible to give up cheese or the splash of milk that I have in my daily coffee. So I balance it by eliminating the yoghurt/milk from my smoothies. Also, almond milk adds a nice nutty taste to the smoothies and hubby really likes it. In the past we've also used hemp milk which we like.

A tropical drinking smoothie

Sometimes for a change we'll make drinking smoothies and you can see the fruits we use for that in the video below, as well as our other weekday breakfasts.

If it's a cold wintery day then we will sometimes have porridge topped with, you guessed it, nuts, seeds and fruit ;o) Occasionally I will have a simple fresh fruit salad, although that is a bit of treat given how expensive exotic fruits like mangoes and melons are in Japan!

A warm breakfast on a cold day

Fresh fruit salad

If you're a long time Glistening Sheen follower then you'll know that I love to make my own granola. However, as we don't have a proper oven I've not been able to make that since we moved to Japan. Unlike British people, the Japanese don't tend to use ovens much for their cooking. Hubby and I used to use our oven almost daily in Singapore and I cannot tell you how much I miss having an oven! You can find my granola recipe here if you're interested :o).

I will try to follow this vlog/post with one on our weekend breakfasts so keep an eye out for that in the next few weeks.

What do you like to eat for your weekday breakfast?

Love Sheen xxx

Nature's Rubies

Good Day Everyone,

I love fruit. I've always loved fruit and pomegranate has to be one of my all time favourite fruits along with strawberries, raspberries, mango, watermelon and guava...etc etc. See, I told you I loved fruit. I would struggle to tell you which is my favourite fruit as for me, it's impossible to choose just one. 

Living in Singapore was an absolute joy for me as not only did I have easy access to all sorts of exotic fruits but it was also pretty affordable. In Japan, this is simply not the case. For some reason fruit is ridiculously expensive here (as is everything else lol) and the variety is also quite limited.  However, one fruit that I've always seen at the supermarket since moving here almost 6 months ago, is pomegranate. Whilst we have pomegranates back home in England and in Singapore, I'll be honest, like many people I would often neglect this super fruit simply because of the effort required to get to those juicy little seeds inside. Especially with my arthritic hands and issues with grip, using a sharp knife to cut into it would often mean risking my fingers ;o).

In Japan, we've invested in a couple of Japanese knives, after ours were confiscated from our shipping boxes by customs for some reason, and that has made things a whole lot easier when it comes to cutting up this amazing fruit. Japanese knives are fantastic! They're super light weight which is great for my arthritic wrist but also very sharp making it easy to cut through the toughest of fruits and vegetables. Don't get me wrong, my kitchen still looks like a murder scene by the time I've finished getting all the seeds out of the tough pomegranate skin. The kitchen cupboards and kettle look like they've been in some kind of blood bath and even the next day I find signs of the battle that took place but when you look at the sheer goodness these nature's rubies provide, it is sooo worth the effort ;o).

Pomegranate is known as a super fruit because it is rich in antioxidants. In fact, it is thought that pomegranate has greater antioxidant power than green tea or cranberries. Antioxidants are needed by our body to mop up free radicals that can cause ill health. There is compelling research to suggest that pomegranate actually offers protection against cancer and heart disease, as well as lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. You can read more about the health benefits and results from clinical trials here.

With all these great health benefits and it's easy availability, pomegranate is now a staple fruit in my diet, and with my new knife, getting to those juicy seeds is a little bit easier :o). I know that some people chew the pomegranate seeds to suck out the juice and then spit out the hard part of the seeds that's left behind, but I actually eat all of it, as the hard part of the seed is full of fiber. Pomegranates are very versatile and can be eaten in a number of different ways. I like to eat them sprinkled on salads or my breakfast smoothie bowls, added to porridge or even on their own as a snack. I remember that whenever I visited Turkey on holiday there would be freshly squeezed pomegranate juice available on most streets and it tasted unbelievably delicious.

Have you tried pomegranate juice? What's your favourite fruit?

Love Sheen xxx

Garden Joy

 Good Day Everyone,

How a-mazing has the weather been lately in England?! I cannot remember the last time we had such a great summer, although I’m sure we (well not me as I’m now back in sunny Singapore but you get what I mean) will pay the price with an  equally bad winter, but for now lets enjoy and reminisce about how fantastically sunny and hot August was :o)

When I was younger I was never an out doorsy person or even a garden person. The bugs and creepy crawlies were enough of a deterrent to keep me tucked away safely indoors. I never had pets as a child as I struggle with anything that moves and I can only just about cope with fellow human beings ;o) I’m not quite sure what it is that scares me of other living / moving things but I just don’t like the idea of something pouncing / crawling on me when I least expect it. I think it might be a combination of my nervous disposition and over active imagination which results in me having a tendency to freak myself out!!!


However, over the last few years I’ve experienced, first hand, the satisfaction and pleasure gained from growing and then hand picking your own produce. In fact, one of the first gifts my hubby (then boyfriend) gave me was a beautiful plant pot with coriander and rocket growing in it. My mum has always grown some sort of herbs and vegetables for as long as I can remember, as well as her own flowers. When my hubby and I renovated our last house we had a small garden in which we grew our own potatoes, tomatoes, peas and strawberries as well as an array of herbs. Oh, the joy of picking tomatoes fresh of the vine and basil leaves straight from our garden to create our own salad was incredibly immense – I loved it!!! 

Spinach and garlic

Fresh coriander

A turnip poking through the soil

Being back home in England last week allowed me to spend some precious time with my mum in her garden. She’s been growing her own organic spinach, garlic, potatoes, turnips, rocket  and coriander in a makeshift vegetable patch. It was amazing to prepare fresh salads with spinach, rocket and coriander freshly picked from the garden :o)

My parents also planted several fruit trees this year and the cherry tree even managed a few cherries :o) Around one of the edges of my parent’s garden there are some wild blackberry bushes where local children come to pick their own blackberries. Whilst very sour, the blackberries make a great fruit crumble mixed with some green apples and honey.



My parent’s garden also has a few beautiful rose plants including a peach and red rose. The roses are amazingly fragrant and my mum tends to keep a vase of them in the living room as well as her bedroom as natural potpourri. In addition to the roses, she has a beautiful purple hydrangea bush, as well a lavender bush - oh, I can just smell it now, it's so relaxing :o)

There is large old tree in my parent’s garden where birds often nest and my hubby actually bought some bird feeders from the garden centre we went to the week before (click here to read that post) that he hung from the tree for the birds. I only wish I was going to be home long enough to watch the birds feeding from the heart shaped feeder.

 

The garden is an absolute feast for the eyes and I loved spending time in it with my mum, taking in all the different colours, fragrances and marvelling in nature’s beauty. It really does have a very calming effect on one’s mind and kind of helps you to take a break from the hectic pace of modern life and appreciate the things in life that we so often dismiss and ignore so easily.

What do you most enjoy about your garden? Do you grown your own flowers or herbs, fruit or vegetables? Do you get the same pleasure of handpicking fresh produce from your own garden as we do?

Love Sheen xxx