My Maca Bliss Balls

My Maca Powder arrived today and I could not wait to experiment with this new taste. Reading up about it on the web, I see it is said to have libido raising properties, that it can energise and lift your mood and other positive things and it tastes sweet and malty, what's not to love. So, after browsing a bit more, I created these truffles, a mish mash of other recipes tweaked and completely changed and mashed up and My Maca Bliss Balls, is what I have created!

This is what I did, all the ingredients are available to buy or order from us, by the way.

My Maca Bliss Balls

Soak 1/2 a cup of cashews and 1/2 a cup of walnuts in boiling hot water.

Take 10 pitted organic and Fairtrade dates and soak those in a separate bowl of boiling hot water.

Prepare the other ingredients.

Put 3 tablespoons of coconut butter in a container and put somewhere warm, or maybe put the container into hot water, so that it melts and add a drop of vanilla extract.

Then measure out 1/4 cup of Raw Cacao Powder, plus a 1/4 of a cup of Maca Powder and two tablespoons of Hemp Protein Powder.

Drain the water from the nuts and put the nuts into your superduper strong blender, not just any ordinary blender, otherwise this won't work. Then pulse and blend, until nicely combined.

Next drain the water from the dates and add them to the blender and then whizz away.

Keep blending and slowly pour the melted coconut butter with vanilla extract into the mix.

Then add the powders and blend well together, until it is all stodgy!

Put the mix into a metal container then put into the freezer, whilst you prepare the coatings for your truffles.

I used Cacao nibs on some, melted chocolate on some others and cacao powder on the ones that were left. 

It's pretty much up to you how creative you get and what you'd like to do.

Once you have your coatings ready, it's time to get the mix out of the freezer and start rolling walnut sized balls, you should get around 12 to 15 balls. Then roll them in your chosen coating, put them into the fridge and then ENJOY!!

I am now going to take these home to my family to enjoy and hopefully we will have a blissed out evening.

Please let me know what you decide to coat your balls with! (Hmmm, that doesn't sound too good but you know what I mean). xxx

Business Mum Week!

SHOCK Cash Mob at The Village Wholefood Store!

Did you know...

That from October 1st to October 7th, it was Business Mum Week 2012?

I don't know about you but I'm a Mum and if you're a Mum too, you're probably very busy, if you're a working Mum and especially if you run your own business, then you're probably extremely busy.

That particular week was for me, extremely busy indeed! It's one of those weeks, where I didn't realise, until at the end of the week, when I could relax and allow myself to rest, I looked back and thought, 'That was a busy one!'.

Art Exhibition!

For a start, we had a new art exhibition going up, by Love Light Art, on Monday. The old exhibition had to come down, the new one had to go up, more space had to be made, as there are so many brilliant pictures, just so many of them, there are cards and prints and at the same time a new delivery of goodies came into our shop, that all needed pricing and labelling up.

SHOCK Cash Mob!

At the same time, I was secretly organising a mob of ten people to go into a great health food shop, The Village Wholefood Store, to shock the owner by all spending £10 each and giving a brilliant local independent retailer a boost with finances and some great PR, with the press coming down to cover the story and highlighting Jill Simpson's business! You can find out more about this story by reading my guest blog on Clare Rayner's The Retail Champion Blog, or by taking a peek at the coverage by The Enfield Advertiser!

New Skinny Me Meet Up!

In the same week we were hosting a special event for the participants, or potential participants in the New Skinny Me programme. It was at that point, on Friday, the end of the week that everything seemed like it was colliding together.

Collide!

My 3 year old wasn't feeling his normal self, not ill but just not himself, let's say, not ill....yet! I was meant to be concentrating on the New Skinny Me meet Up but couldn't, everything was coming together, yet colliding at the same time! A lady that I had connected with on Facebook arrived at the same time as the New Skinny Me meeting was still ongoing, with clothes and toys that I was buying from her in preparation for my 3 year old's next birthday and all at the same time as trying to pay money to the lady from the Enfield Preservation Society, for some picture cards of our local area, for the shop. My phone was beeping and bleeping with people responding to posts and pictures of the Cash Mob event and the art exhibition, oh and asking if they would like to vote for me in The Top 100 Mums, Business Mum Awards, by The Mum's Club! And at the same time, I was trying to get an Enfield contact for a journalist, for a story, just to help them out because I reckon, that's what Mums do, isn't it! At the same time, I'm trying to meet up with my brother from America, my sister-in-law and new baby nephew but haven't got not one second to spare, to communicate!

My 3 year old got his cuddles, New Skinny Me ladies, got their guidance from Amrit, The Enfield Preservation society got their money, as did the lady with the clothes and toys and guess what! The journalist even managed to get his contact!! I even got to see my brother and the rest of the family, then my car broke down, with 3 year old in it too. Just remembered that I was covered by my insurance policy, as an added extra to have breakdown cover! 

We were rescued, then I got home and oldest son was very pleased to see me, I was exhausted and needed to clear up the lounge ready for the weekend, whilst Gunter, my partner cooked for us all.

So, that definitely was one busy and exhausting week!

Top 100 Mums!

Today, Sunday, life was a bit calmer, after I had put in a food order to arrive at the shop, for the next day, we all went to and enjoyed the new weekly Crews Hill Market! Towards the end of the evening, I got the children ready for bed, with relaxing baths and washed and combed their hair, got their things ready for school and nursery the next day. At around 9pm, I get onto facebook and get distracted for a few hours, then decide to wind down and get ready to go to bed, as it's 10.30pm. I decide to finish up by reading my emails and deleting the ones I don't need. I open my email up and right at the top, in big capital letters, where I can't possibly miss it, there's an email with the subject starting, 'CONGRATULATIONS!' My heart started thumping, was I one of the Top 100 Mums in the UK, or not?

I opened the email and, read through quickly and this is what it said....

'CONGRATULATIONS! You have been voted into the Top 100 of the Mums Club 2012 Awards!'

I read on and the email told me that it had been Business Mums Week the whole of my very hectic week and the irony wasn't lost on me, that I completely didn't realise purely because I'm a busy Mum!

So to everyone that has voted for me in these awards and made me feel loved, valued and appreciated, I say a mighty big thank you and I will always do my best to share our success, with you!