The Official Retirement of Mint Peonies PLUS New Blog/Website

Hey fellow readers of Mint Peonies!

Thank you for continuing to follow this dormant blog of mine for the last couple of years!

I just wanted to let you know that I actually have a new blog/website that I started after finishing my yoga teacher training last year.

You’ll still find great recipes and natural beauty and lifestyle tips so if you’d like to keep in touch please do subscribe on my new website here: http://stephmatthews.com/

You can also find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Hope to see you over there and thank you again! x

Happy Halloween!

I wish there was a bit more involvement for Halloween in the UK… we’ve had one trick-or-treater! Nevertheless, since I’m much too old for that but still enjoy the treats, I made some gluten-free chocolate cupcakes (pattern here?) And to top them off, a dairy-free chocolate icing. Unfortunately, the sprinkles are neither…

Happy Halloween everyone! Wishing you a safe and fun evening! x

 

Snapshots: Morning Glory Yoga

Enjoying morning yoga on the deck with these beautiful morning glory flowers all around me…

Holiday Highlights

I had such a lovely holiday away in the English countryside and by the seaside though I’ve hardly had time to get home, unpack, and do it all over again! I only had a matter of days before I was heading back to Canada to finally see my family and friends after a very long overdue visit.

However, first things first; it’s hard to sum up everything I did and saw and narrow down my favorite places (and way too many pictures to choose from!) so here are some of the highlights:

So many places so little time…

Classic Devon clotted cream tea

Beautiful cottages- I wouldn’t mind a pink house if it looked like this!

Coastline sunsets

Donut peaches

Exmoor wild ponies

And a sidenote: Halfway through the year, I can tick off horseback riding from my New Year’s resolutions as I finally went when I was away!

 

Summertime Getaway

No one is more excited than me to hear that it’s meant to be the hottest week of July here in the U.K in seven years! Mainly because I also happen to be going away this week (leaving today) and the weather here is so unpredictable. It’s so nice to know that I should be guaranteed some proper sunshine! Although I’ve been in England for a while now, I haven’t really explored too much of it. I’m going to a cottage in Somerset, and planning to head over to Devon as well for some English seaside.

I’ve been making a bunch of healthy snacks to take on the journey there and to have kicking around for the first couple of days. I made some minted beetroot hummus to have with veggies, roasted chickpeas, gluten-free banana pecan muffins, and a healthier version of my peanut butter balls.

If you’re in the U.K, I hope you take advantage of this lovely weather and soak up some sunshine!

Loving the colour of this

These gluten-free muffins have raw cacao nibs, cold-milled flax, and maca added to them

 

 

Topshop Drapery

When I was asked what I was most excited to see when I first arrived in London, my answer wasn’t any of the museums or historic landmarks. My answer was Topshop. I think I presented myself as most uncultured but what can I say? I’d been surfing their website for months on end prior to coming over and seeing it myself. Upon first hitting the shop on Oxford Street I felt like it was home, much to my husband’s dismay as we spent the next couple of hours inside.

Topshop has since become the norm for finding all sorts of bits and pieces and the novelty has slightly worn off now that I’m so used to it. But I still love it. I’m still enamoured with the idea as I was in the first place of a shop that spread across three floors and held not only an abundance of clothes, shoes, and accessories, but also, a nail bar, hair lounge, café, and cupcake stand. You can literally go in there looking like a slob and come out all brand new and shiny!

Onto the point of my post…. All that background talk just to get to one of my latest Topshop finds. I have a thing for drapey, delicate, flowy tops and this one caught my eye. Coming in a variety of colours I settled on mint and classic white. It’s definitely a bit simple on its own but can be dressed up or down and made into something perfectly suitable. I love that it can be paired with distressed denim or smartened up with a pair of trousers and a blazer.

Malteasers Taster

I remember seeing this cake plastered all over Pinterest and many other sites for a long time now. I always knew I wanted to make it but needed the right occasion to do so. It’s not the sort of thing I tend to indulge in like I used to and baking like this has become a bit of a one off. This cake definitely felt a bit more special and needed the appropriate timing for it to be made. I mean, it’s a lot of cake and a very rich chocolatey cake at that. And what better timing to debut this cake than for someone else?

Enter my mother-in-law’s recent birthday. She adores Malteasers and never fails to receive numerous boxes around the holidays so this cake was an obvious choice. Aptly named “Let Them Eat Cake, Cake” by Lorraine Pascale, this cake is chocolatey, dense, and fudgy. It was the ideal birthday cake: adorned with Malteasers and an all around show-stopper.

Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Essence

I came across Tata Harper when it had been mentioned numerous times (and for good reason) by one of my favorite blogs, No More Dirty Looks.

Everyone raved about it, and not just one or two products but pretty much anything that they had tried. It was a line I had been wanting to delve into myself but with high costs and limited availability of finding it across the UK at the time (note: I have since found a couple places and I’ve heard Tata is expanding!) I searched out another way to sample the products prior to purchasing. I’m not opposed to spending out for products, especially those that pertain to skin our largest organ, however I need to know I’m going to reep some serious benefits from it.

The perfect opportunity came along via a Tata Harper facial offered at Being Content in London. This was by far the best facial I’ve ever received- the products smelt amazing and felt good on my skin (no irritation or redness which can happen even with natural products) and I loved the incorporation of the scalp and arm massage along with Ayurvedic techniques to encourage lymphatic drainage. Despite the bout of cystic acne I’m enduring at the moment, overall my skin was glowing and I felt rejuvenated and relaxed from the treatment. The facial was a great way to be introduced to a variety of the Tata Harper products and it led me to purchase the Hydrating Floral Essence.

My skin has been pretty fickle over the last 6 months with dryness and acne going hand in hand. It’s very important to still moisturize your skin even when dealing with acne but it can be difficult to strike a balance. The Hydrating Floral Essence is described as “A light moisturizing toner spray that deeply hydrates the skin and gives the complexion a fresh, dewy radiance” and for me it’s been the best of both worlds- a toner and a moisturizer. It’s the perfect product going into summer because it doesn’t feel heavy or sticky like moisturizers can and instead, you have a refreshing cooling spray that soaks into your skin leaving it balanced and moisturized.

Baking Bread

I don’t necessarily follow any sort of diet, i.e. gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, etc. However, if I can manage to make something that I really enjoy and it happens to be so, I’m all for it. I like the challenge of finding new ways to take old recipes and attempt to make them taste the same as if they contained one or all of the above. I do try to limit the amount of processed foods and extra sugar floating around everywhere. I try to focus on filling my body with healthy, nutritious, organic food for the most part but don’t refrain from the indulgence of treats. Because I don’t believe in that.

All that being said, bread is big thing I’m working on bettering. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find it hard to have just eggs for breakfast without some sort of bread on the side. It doesn’t seem the same. And I love a fresh loaf of white bread as much as the next person but I don’t think it constitutes as a great thing to have everyday. I came across Sarah B’s recipe for a fabulous bread recipe and I’ve been making it ever since. It’s my new go-to bread and the one I have with my breakfast eggs.

I made mine with pumpkin seeds, walnuts, hazelnuts, and sunflower seeds. And along with the psyllium husks I added a tablespoon of Maca powder. First few times I made it, as I was without a silicon pan, I spent intervals of time scraping off the parchment until I could get it back in the oven for its second bake. A silicon pan does work best, from my experience. And it’s true what she says- it really does make the best toast ever.

PSB Pasta

PSB for Purple Sprouting Broccoli.

I don’t think I ever fully appreciated the local farmers market in my area until I began juicing (more on that subject in future) Of course, I always enjoyed wandering around it and checking out the local stalls. It’s the perfect place to stock up on lots of fresh fruit and vegetables for the week ahead. It also provides an opportunity to pick up the sort of produce I wouldn’t necessarily be able to find at my usual shop. And it means I can buy local produce which I like to purchase whenever I can.

I’d seen a recipe using PSB as the star ingredient in a cookbook by Abel & Cole and knew I definitely wanted to try it. So I was very excited (never thought I’d be getting excited over broccoli!) to come across some of the purple veg when I last visited the farmers market. There’s something to be said about buying something fresh and eating it that very same day.