Today makes it officially one month since we moved to England…as each year goes by I feel like time just flies by quicker and quicker! Anyone else feel that way?

Up until today the weather has been pretty good, it rained for about 4-5 days when we first got here but then the rain stopped and the sun came out (a little) and today the rain came back, although luckily it’s stopped now. Gotta love the English weather 😉

Anyway Joe and I have been continuing our nightly ritual of going walking and it’s a completely different experience to when we were in Michigan. Over there when we walked we would hardly ever come across anyone else, maybe a couple of people in a week. Over here there are people out and about every night…most are running, some cycle (people bike a lot here even just for daily commutes) and some walk like us, although a lot of them are just walking to the local pub 😉 

It’s nice though, I like seeing others out there like us, it felt dead most of the time when we used to walk around our neighbourhood in Michigan. Although to be fair I do sometimes miss the walks in the snow, not when it was slippery though!

Speaking of Michigan it’s funny how after living somewhere for a period of time you get used to certain things. For e.g. we all know of the saga between the grain-fed and grass-fed meat over there, which is the reason why I would buy most of our meat from Whole Foods. Over here in England, much like in Australia (as I believe I’ve mentioned previously) this isn’t really an issue because it’s still cheaper for farmers to rear their cattle etc on grass. You can take a drive around here and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see sheep, pigs or cows grazing on grass.

Having just left America to come here, I was at first still in the grain-fed/grass-fed mindset but then realised that yep it’s really not a big deal here like it is in the U.S. and because of that it’s cheaper as well, for e.g. the other week when we went grocery shopping we got some mince/ground meat. It cost around £2.99/500grams which equates to $4.50USD/1.1lbs… I was paying around $6.99USD/1lbs back in America!

Speaking of food I finally bit the bullet and ordered some raw milk online. I have been wanting to try raw milk out for ages and finally found a reputable farm over here that ships their milk. I’m just really curious about the whole thing so can’t wait to try it out! Has anyone reading tried out raw milk? If so what are your thoughts? Also, I finally made a decision on a weekly organic fruit/veg delivery box, I mentioned before that there are so many options here mostly I guess because there are so many farms around. In the end I decided to go with one where you basically enter your postcode/zip and they deliver your produce from the farm closest to you… which means less food miles!

I know I probably sound read like a crazy person but I seriously get so excited over this stuff! I mean I’m excited over raw milk and fruit/veg! What can I say food gets me excited 😉

Anyway on to today’s recipe! As you can tell by the title of this post and the picture at the start it involves chocolate… actually it’s homemade nutella! Yep you read right NUTELLA! I wish I could take all the credit but this recipe actually comes from Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar Cookbook. As with 99.9% of recipes I follow I changed it up some what.

Homemade Paleo Nutella

Ingredients:

• 1 cup hazelnuts.
• 1/4 cup cacao powder.
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract/powder.
• 1 Tbsp hazelnut oil/macadamia nut oil.
• 1/2 cup full-fat canned coconut milk.
• 3-4 Tbsps raw honey (if you want it fructose free use an alternative sweetener like stevia or rice malt syrup).
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (my addition and can be left out).
• Pinch of sea salt (again my addition and can be left out).

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180C/355F.

Spread your hazelnuts onto a baking tray and bake for around 8-10 minutes or until browned. Remove from the oven and carefully place onto a kitchen towel.

Rub the hazelnuts to get most of the skin off, it doesn’t have to be perfect! Place hazelnuts into your food processor and grind to a smooth consistency.

Add in the rest of the ingredients and process until everything is mixed well. You can add a more coconut milk if you want it runnier.

Place in a jar/container and store in the fridge.

So simple… and much better for you than the regular store bought stuff! Plus I’m sure more cost effective!

Also speaking of chocolate Sarah has put out a call for people to come up with a chocolate recipe for her upcoming Chocolate Recipe ebook (sugar-free). The requirements are:

• Must be your own.
• Must be fructose-free (no honey, no maple syrup, no agave and low-fructose fruit only).
• Must feature chocolate (we do prefer raw cacao, but cocoa-based ones are cool, too).
• Must be tested twice (try it out on friends to make sure it works!)
• Needs to be supplied with a picture (high resolution if possible, can be a high quality instagram shot if you’re stuck).