We love trying new foods while travelling! I believe it is the best way to introduce variety of dishes to kids and expand their food horizons. When we are home, I try cooking different meals, for example from the countries that we visited in the […]
If you come to Rome for the first time, the urge to visit all the famous sites might distract you from the sheer abundance of great quality food in Rome. The world famous pizza and pasta are well known to everyone, but if you search […]
Some of you have said recently that you are trying to switch from coffee to an alternative drink, to cut down on your caffeine intake. While caffeine does have a number of health benefits for some adults, if you exceed the recommended daily allowance, it might lead to a number of health risks, like raised blood pressure or a feeling of tiredness. I wanted to share with you a caffeine-free alternative, which can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Barleycup is made from roasted cereal grains and chicory root. It is a natural choice if you are trying to watch your caffeine intake or looking for a healthy drink option for your kids.
Barleycup can be enjoyed hot or cold. The cold option is ideal for summer days, but now is the perfect time to have an indoor picnic with warm drinks, lots of cosy blankets and a fairy tale book!
Drink preparation is so simple, you can even ask the kids to help you.
I looked up Barleycup’s recipes on the website and the Barleycup with Fruits of the Forest recipe sounded delicious! To make this recipe, you will need:
3 teaspoons of fruit of forest pulp
4 teaspoons Barleycup
A pinch of cinnamon
3 cloves
250 ml water
Put all of the ingredients in the small pan and heat until almost boiling. Strain into a mug and finish either with a slice of orange or some more fruit.
I have used frozen berries, which I whizzed in the blender to get the pulp. Also, if you feel that your kids are not going to like warming spices, replace cloves with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
The Barleycup website www.barleycup.com provides a whole bunch of recipes, which I am looking forward to trying. And Barleycup isn’t just for drinks! You can also use Barleycup as an ingredient in porridge, desserts or breakfast bowls.
It is available to buy from Amazon and Health Food stores, like Holland and Barrett. We have tried 3 kinds: Cereal Drink, Organic and with Dandelion and our family favourite has been the Cereal Drink.
What I liked most about Barleycup is that it offers a great alternative to tea and coffee with a tempting aroma and mild taste. Also, if you are starting to watch the calories intake after all the Christmas indulgencies, Barleycup contains no added sugars and it is only 10kcals per cup.
January will come quicker than I want and after indulging at the Christmas table, I know I will be on the look out for healthy snacks for myself and my family. I want to share with you a completely natural product, which is entirely fat, […]
It is not a secret that pyjamas are an all time favourite gift for Christmas. But this year, I suggest a slight spin on this tradition: give a bathrobe! Warm and fluffy it will keep you dry after the shower, or if you want an […]
One of the prettiest towns in Kent is Whitstable: seaside location, great food and plenty of independent shops and small producers. I was delighted to discover Lost Sheep Coffee, which is roasted in Whitstable and grown in Colombia.
The packaging is lovely, the colours are bright to wake you up in the morning, when you put your first capsule into the coffee machine (capsules are Nespresso compatible)! While you are waiting for the coffee you can read about the founders story and how much they care about the coffee itself. I have a lot of respect for anyone, who goes extra mile and does not settle just for the average taste.
And it is not just about the taste. The founders of the Lost Sheep Coffee Stuart and Sarah only use Grade I coffee beans to ensure full traceablility from farm to cup and a consistent quality of your drink. They trade directly with coffee farms, which allows farmers to be paid fairly for their work and skills.
I loved the kind-to-the-environment packaging: capsules are fully compostable. Each pack also provides a taste scale, where you can decide whether the taste will be to your liking, a bit like a wine rating but in coffee terms!
As for the taste, my favourite was Smooth Journey, which delivered exactly what it says on the pack – extremely smooth and chocolatey! I am not a fan of bitter taste coffee, so this one was absolutely perfect for me.
So here we have it – a great tasting coffee in a compostable packaging, which also provides a fair deal to the coffee farmers. It sounds like a perfect combination!
What do you give someone who loves travelling? A plane ticket would be an obvious answer, but it is not always possible due to budget constraints. I am saying: ” Inspiration books!” These are going to create some wanderlust for your travel obsessed friends or family members. […]
The one dish, which you have to try in Uzbekistan, is plov. Plov is many things: it is love, it is family, it is a wedding and it is health. I recommend that you try plov in every city and town that you go to […]
Samarkand is one of the jewels in Uzbekistan crown. When we were walking with our guide in Bukhara she said, that Bukhara is like a beautiful girl without make up and Samarkand is a beautiful girl with make up. She used make up as an analogy to the outside decorations, as Bukhara monuments are mostly unadorned and rely on the exquisite brickwork to have a wow effect.
Samarkand impresses with its external decorations, size and the richness of the interiors. After all, it was Amir Temur’s favourite city and no expense was spared during the construction. Although we hardly see any monuments left from the glory of Amir Temur and Ulugbeck time, Samarkand to this day is still very impressive. I would suggest to build your itinerary in such a way, that first you see Bukhara and then Samarkand to get the increasing beauty effect, otherwise you might miss the unadorned beauty of Bukhara after lavish Samarkand.
Similar to Bukhara, majority of sights in Samarkand can be reached on foot especially if you are staying near Registan square.
We saw majority of the places I am going to mention with Global Connect and they offered a great service, entertaining guide and a tour which suited our needs as a family with young children. I can recommend them without hesitation, and you can also read about our Tashkent and Bukhara tours with Global Connect to see what sights we managed to cover in a day.
1.Registan Square
Starting with the main site in Samarkand, which is hard to miss, Registan is home for three medrese and you can go inside each of them, as well as enjoy the view of the square from the different points of view. The name Registan means “sandy square”, which was a place for a busy market square, but also used as a place for execution, so blood would be quickly concealed by the sand. In some medrese you will be able to see photos from the by-gone era. Inside each of the medrese you will also see plenty of souvenir shops and some of them even offer a small talk on their crafts and techniques. Don’t be shy, ask and you will learn how all beautiful objects on display are being made.
2.Bibi-Khanum Mosque.
A mausoleum built for the favourite wife of Amir Temur (yes, he had a few). Impressive entrance and a peaceful courtyard, where you can observe tourists going under the Quran holder in a weird fashion. It is supposed to help women to have kids, if they crawl underneath the stand.
None of the buildings inside are open, you can only peek through the mesh. Have a look at two buildings as you would be able to see one, which has been restored inside, and the one, which has not. The difference is striking.
3.Siyab Bazaar
While it is not a historic place of interest, I was amazed to see all the produce on offer and see what locals like to buy. The market is also a good place to try things: dried fruit, fresh fruit, nuts, sweets, bread and anything else you fancy – you can try literally anything. Don’t forget to haggle, if you decide to buy something!
4.Shah-i-Zinda
This mausoleum complex together with Registan make two of the most striking objects in Samarkand. Shah-i-Zinda is made up of different mausoleums and it is, in fact, a cemetery. In the past, people would also travel here to pay their respects to the buried here and it was as much a place of pilgrimage in the past as it is now of a historic interest.
The mausoleums facing each other, forming a street, bursting with tiles of all imaginable shades of blue, green and yellow. My advice would be to go here around sunset, as the sun will be reflecting off the tiles creating mesmerising shades and effects. It was overcast on the day we were there, but maybe you will be more lucky.
5.Ulugbek Observatory
Not much left from the original building, but it is worth going just witness where the basis of modern astronomy was established, Calculations made by Ulugbek and his team of scientists have been used for centuries.
The museum has been built on site to showcase some of the inventions and how the observatory functioned. You would also be able to see a part of the meridian and imagine what the whole structure looked like.
6. Gur Emir Complex
This would be the most mythical place on your trail, as this is where the man who put Uzbekistan on the world map is buried. There are a lot of legends associated with his tomb. One of them says that if Amir Temur’s grave is ever diturbed, then the war spirit will come out and the war will break out. Apparently that is exactly what happened when scientists, under Stalin’s orders opened his tomb on 21st of July in 1941, and on 22 July the war between Germany and Russia started. You can believe the legends or not , but it surely was a great finish point to our Uzbekistan tour.
Bukhara is full of ancient treasures and one great thing about Old Bukhara is that you can walk to majority of the sites. We again met up with our tour guide Munisa from Global Connect and started our day tour of Bukhara. I want to […]