THE BEST BITES

If you never got around making your own raw goodies or if you have not tasted a lot of them, you may find the ingredient list somewhat monotonous: dates and nuts, nuts and dates. You might think there can only be so many combos of said main ingredients. But the thing is you can create an endless amount of different tastes, depending on what you choose to add along. If you think about it, a regular cake also (mainly) has the same base; eggs and flour and sugar and it's the rest that then defines it.

These yummy snack-cubes turned into my favourite for the moment! Inspired by a bar at the health store with vanilla and berries, mine also has cocoa and hemp seeds in them. The berries give a nice sour taste  and hemp seeds of course contains lots of nice fatty acids and proteins and what nots, you name it.

You will need:
Sunflower seeds, cashews and hazelnuts. About the same amount of each.
Real vanilla
Coconut oil (can be left out, or changed to a small amount of cocoa butter)
Raw cocoa powder, regular works just as well (this is also optional if you make a non-choco version)
Dried soft dates
Dried berries of your choice
Hemp seeds

As usual the amounts are a little so-so. Some people like their bars sweeter and stickier, some more dry and some more oily. I like mine perfect. Hehe. This is mostly for an idea of what to blend in that you can then use to make your own version of. As my usual way of doing thins, I just pour in and measure with the eye. I will however try and mention how much I used of everything for those of you less adventurous out there.

I mixed about 100grams of sunflower seeds and hazelnuts and a little more cashews in a mixer to a semi smooth texture. Add ground vanilla according to your own taste preferences along, same goes for  the cocoa powder. I put in some 3 tbs.

I scoop in about a tablespoon of room temperatured (=soft) coconut oil. Someone will always complain about the use of coconut oil in everything, and you can leave it out if you want to, although this is a good way to incorporate this healthy oil in your diet, plus it gives a nice add to the consistence of the mix. You may change it to a little but of melted cocoa butter or melted raw chocolate instead.

Then add the dates one by one until the texture feels nice and firm. I used about half of those cardboard boxes of dates. (Btw If you make a big batch like I did of 300grams of nuts you might have to divide the batch in two at this point so that your mixer won't overheat).

Finally add some dried berries and a handful or two of hemp seeds to the mix - you can work the in by hand. I had a mix of dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries and goji berries  (put in about 100g), but pretty much anything will do. Put the dough on a working surface, flatten it out and cut into cubes (or bars).



Yum yum, enjoy!
Store them refrigerated and well sealed.

A DAY IN TALLINN

I went down south for a day trip to Tallinn the other day. (For those of you who have forgotten your geography Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, a few hours south of Helsinki by ship.) I used to go there rather often before when working in the harbour, but now I think it has been at least a few years since the last time.

It was however not totally a day off but something of a work related trip, planning and brainstorming for showbiz and stocking up on supplies for costumes. It's quite common for companies to go on congress/recreation/meeting etc trips on or across the Finnish Bay for a day so we decided to do the same and have our meeting on board. With the company paying - well yes - which makes it even nicer! Of course, when your company consists of two persons and you do all the work yourself it's still you and only you who's paying, but flooing oneself a bit can be comforting.


Lots of coffee and lots of planning.


I had kind of hoped for a warm and sunny spring day and being able to wear my cape but it was cold and warm-jacket weather instead.


Red shoes on old streets.


Mandatory huge pancakes at Kompressor.

We had a destination in town too; a fabric and haberdashery outlet with a much better selection than the stores at home. We kind of went on a little (or, add " around "little"...)  detour on our way there.

So I took walk-by pics of old houses with details matching my boots, mint green bikes (of course) and random doves.


Shopping at Karnalux.
Seriously, anyone who has ever been into costuming in one way or another will know the mixesd emotions and agony of being in a place like this - the pain of knowing you will not be able to go trough everything, and the thrill of having so much to scout for, and then almost giving up and not tang anything because there is just too much. Seriously, it's like this for aisle after aisle, meter after meter in a few hundred square meters.


Lots of ribbons and such making their way back home with us.
(We later realised we should have stocked up on so much more when at it. Damn!)


So we had to calm our nerves at African Kichen afterwards. Vegan dinner and yummy cocktails.

And very tired after lots of walking and brainstorming on our way back home.
(As you can see I have 'done' something to my hair, smartly enough around midnight one moment while brushing my teeth at the same time, so we'll get back to that at some other point.)