Tea and Sympatico

Just recently I've been all about quinoa. Matt and I have been doing the  5:2  diet and quinoa is fab for low calorie meals on the two days a week that we eat limited calories. I'm thinking of doing a blog post of our experience of 5:2 if anyone is interested. Above is the Black Bean and Quinoa salad from Appetite For Reduction . Below from the same book is Quinoa Puttanesca. These were both fast day lunches, full of flavour and nice and filling. I spotted a range of instant pots from Artisan Grains in a health food shop the other day and can report that this Moroccan Spiced Couscous, Quinoa, Freekah and Lentils was tasty and filling enough for a fast day meal. They'd be great for camping too. Back in the day when I was a reviewer for Can I eat It? App I discovered some amazing companies such as Artisan Grains who make these pots and also Mothergrain Quinola whose quinoa range I reviewed here . Recently Mothergrain contacted me to ask if I'd like so...

Inspired by my friend over at the  My Cat Loves Daiya  blog I've been using my local library for recipe inspiration. The weather has been awful this week, so wet and windy, and I was drawn to this little book of recipes for Hot Toddies. The book has large section of alcoholic hot beverages with things such as mulled wine and cider, glogg, hot buttered rum and of course hot toddy. Towards the back is a non-alcoholic section and I was attracted to the recipe for Moroccan Spiced Coffee first. I used decaff coffee for this as it is what Matt drinks at home. I usually drink one cup of caffeinated coffee a day and then switch to decaff if I want anymore. I also don't like caffeinated first thing in the morning so this was a good breakfast blend for me. To two ounces of coffee you add a spice blend made from a cinnamon stick, two teaspoons of toasted sesame seeds, a quarter of a teaspoon of fennel seeds and the seeds from three cardamon pods. We tried this as both black uns...