Laura Livesey, Author at The Confidence Kitchen

Use a morning routine to build healthy habits quickly
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Powerful Habits

Use a morning routine to build healthy habits quickly

Use a morning routine to build healthy habits quickly I love my morning routine. It's amazing that most of us have 25,000 mornings in our adult lives between the age of 18 to 80. Morning activities for most people range from the bare minimum (shower, dress, coffee, and... go!) to potent time chunks that are used to magically automate key life habits that would under other circumstances require willpower to achieve. I accidentally stumbled on the power of morning routines about 10 years ago. At first what I was doing hardly qualified as a routine. There were just a couple habits linked together consisting of Julia Cameron's [...]

Rooibos tea benefits and creating a herbal tea routine
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Healthy Recipes, Powerful Habits

Rooibos tea benefits and creating a herbal tea routine

Rooibos tea benefits and creating a herbal tea routine This week's habit has us adding a very easy hydration and antioxidant rich step into the morning routine we are building together over the course of the month. I'll share what my routine looks like, and then you can decide the best place to fit one or more healthful cups of herbal tea into your day. It's no secret that tea sets a kind of rhythym to my days. Acting almost like punctuation, herbal teas in particular bring much needed mini-pauses spaced around everyday moments. One such pause that adds a great deal of joy every morning is a [...]

Essential green smoothie recipe for energy and clear skin
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Healthy Recipes, Powerful Habits

Essential green smoothie recipe for energy and clear skin

Essential green smoothie recipe for energy and clear skin I'm sure you've heard that a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality including cancer and heart attacks. But what researchers have recently learned is that for every additional serving of fruits or vegetables you consume daily, there is a 4% reduction in your risk of cardiovascular mortality. Every single extra serving of fruits and vegetables you ingest really does add up in a measurable way towards better health. This week we're adding a basic green smoothie to our morning routine. What might seem like a small habit is [...]

How to make lemon water life changing
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Healthy Recipes, Powerful Habits

How to make lemon water life changing

How to make lemon water life changing In the past 2 years I've noticed that almost every mainstream health guru has started advising warm lemon water. It's an easy thing to do for a pretty nice stack of benefits that include: weight-loss, immune boosting, energy boosting, inflammation reduction and wrinkle reduction. This week's habit is simple but powerful. To prepare for the week ahead all you need to do is buy 4 lemons. But before you do that, let me introduce you to a journey that you may want to start with us here at The Confidence Kitchen. Week 1: We're about to [...]

A thrilling start to 2015
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Powerful Habits

A thrilling start to 2015

A thrilling start to 2015 A great big hug and Happy New Year to you! It's been such a thrilling start to the year to receive the annual website performance reports that Wordpress circulated this week. This has been the year where I have stopped feeling like one person shouting alone into the wilderness. This has become a true health community and I have enjoyed every minute of sharing with you. A thrilling start to 2015 I can't believe it but my blog has grown by a whopping 741% since 2013. Over 37,000 blog posts have been viewed on The Confidence [...]

Spanish fish soup with Jerusalem artichokes and puy lentils
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Healthy Recipes

Spanish fish soup with Jerusalem artichokes and puy lentils

Spanish fish soup with Jerusalem artichokes and puy lentils This is an amazingly feisty and deeply flavourful soup. The combination of tomatoes, eggs, mackerel and Jerusalem artichokes in this result in a 1+1=50 explosion of "umami" flavouring. Umami is a Japanese word for the 5th unique taste that humans can detect. After salty, sweet, sour and bitter, this 5th taste is a moreish savoury taste that the Japanese have known about since 1908, but those of us in West have only started talking seriously about since the mid 1980's. It may not look like much on first glance, but this soup packs [...]

Risotto of buckwheat groats with beets and garlic porcini mushrooms
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Healthy Recipes

Risotto of buckwheat groats with beets and garlic porcini mushrooms

Risotto of buckwheat groats with beets and garlic porcini mushrooms Quinoa is normally on my grain speed-dial, but lately I've been experimenting with Buckwheat Groats (also called Kasha). Though kind of saddled with an unfortunate name, Buckwheat Groats are actually delightfully nutty, gluten-free seeds that rate low on the glycemic scales (no wheat or gluten in sight). On the healthfulness front Buckwheat is great, surpassing rice, wheat and corn on many levels. Because those three are especially high on the glycemic scale, they provoke a quick spike in blood sugar levels and promote systemic inflammation. I try to avoid rice, wheat and [...]

Baked oatmeal with carrots coconut and cardamom
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Healthy Recipes

Baked oatmeal with carrots coconut and cardamom

Baked oatmeal with carrots coconut and cardamom I love how baked oatmeal has taken the foodie internet by storm. This humble little dish has in fact become one of my favourite warming cold weather breakfasts. It's just so amazingly tasty. By baking your porridge ingredients you end up with an almost cake like taste that works for breakfast, but also as a nice tea break snack too. I love the versatility! This is sort of a carrot cake based baked oatmeal. There are the usual carrot cake characters including loads of shredded carrots, cinnamon, raisins and walnuts and then there is [...]

Smoky cauliflower soup with turmeric sweet potatoes and red peppers
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Healthy Recipes

Smoky cauliflower soup with turmeric sweet potatoes and red peppers

Smoky cauliflower soup with turmeric sweet potatoes and red peppers This cauliflower soup is the warming equivalent of a great big exotic hug. Roasting cauliflower until it's a smoky, caramelised hot mess really makes my day. It's a simple enough process. You throw some plain old cauliflower in a roasting pan with oil and spices, not really expecting much, but what pops back out of the oven after 30 minutes is a wondrous thing. Apart from the roasted cauliflower, the cinnamon, cumin, and turmeric work together to bring out the savoury goodness in the vegetables and the sweet potato and [...]

Moist blackberry pumpkin bread with amazing banana coconut frosting
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Healthy Recipes

Moist blackberry pumpkin bread with amazing banana coconut frosting

Moist blackberry pumpkin bread with amazing banana coconut frosting Who wouldn't want to eat cake that doesn't cause your waistline to expand like the usual suspects do? This cake has zero added sugar and no flour either yet it tastes amazing. It's full of the pumpkin pie spices including cinnamon, clove and nutmeg which mix with the pumpkin to give you that lovely autumnal mix of flavours. The sweetness of the dates, pumpkin, and banana in the frosting (which I am addicted to) serve to make it taste very sweet, but the secret is pairing this natural sweetness with some superhero health [...]

About Laura Livesey