Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Oat Energy Balls

HELLO! So, it's been a while since I last visited my little corner of the internet. Nothing much has happened I just was having a little break from blogging. In my break from the Tea Cozy Kitchen I have been on holiday to Croatia, which was so beautiful and the food and drink was amazing. I celebrated my 27th birthday (shock! horror!) with a very tasty triple layer biscoff and caramel cake (pics to follow!), we also celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary and our wee tiny pup turned 6 months old! Time just keeps marching on!

Anyway, today i'm sharing a very simple, tasty and a little healthy recipe for you. Chocolate, peanut butter and oat energy balls are a new discovery for me but a great one at that! I love one or two mid-afternoon with a big cuppa coffee to beat those 3pm energy slumps. So here goes...

 

Ingredients

makes 16 (two-bite) energy balls

150g oats,

50g raisins,

3tbsp smooth or crunchy peanut butter,

1.5tbsp honey,

0.5 tsp vanilla extract,

100g white chocolate,

90g dark chocolate,

cocoa nibs and ground almonds to decorate.

Method

• Use a food processor to blend the oats, raisins, peanut butter, honey and vanilla together until you get a paste that can be easily rolled into balls.
• Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and roll the mixture into 16 evenly sized balls setting each one on the tray.
• Put the tray of balls in the fridge to set for 15mins.
• Melt the chocolates and roll each ball in the chocolate until it is evenly covered and setting each ball back on the tray with a sprinkle of your desired topping, I used cocoa nibs and ground almonds.
• Pop the tray back in the fridge for the chocolate to set for another 15mins then chow down!

These can be kept in the fridge for a few days. This is a great base recipe as you could easily change the nut butter, swap the raisins for dates, add chopped nuts or change the toppings. I really enjoyed this recipe so I would really love it if you let me know how it goes for you, thanks so much for reading,

Rachael xx.

20 Facts about Me

Hi all and welcome back to The Tea Cozy Kitchen! I have slightly different post for you today! I have seen these types of posts floating about Instagram (i'm @rachheron1 if you want to give me a follow) and I thought it would be fun to give it a go! It's a little bit more personal than i'm used to, but, I thought it would be good to show the person behind the food, so here goes, 20 facts about me.

1. My name is Rachael and I am 26 and live in Belfast in Northern Ireland.
2. I went to an all girls high school and loved it.
3. I got engaged when I was 21 and married when I was 23 to my lovely husband Sean.
4. He was my first and only boyfriend. We met when we were 19 and that was that!
5. My husband and I both have lots of red hair, we are typically Irish looking.
6. I started doing a degree in Actuarial Studies but switched to an English Literature degree two years in. I studied at Queen's University Belfast.
7. I am such a worry wart and if there is anything to worry about I will definitely find it, much to the annoyance of my husband.
8. I used to work in Retail but recently just left my job as it was not what I wanted to do long term (loved the people though!) and I wanted to pursue food as a career.
9. I love to bake (as you can probably tell!) and bake a lot for family and friends.
10. I also love to cook but didn't really do any cooking until about 5 years ago. I credit Good Food magazine for teaching me to cook and helping me to love food.
11. I'm a complete literature geek and love all the classics. I recently just did an evening course on the Bronte sisters and it was amazing.
12. I read all the Jane Austen novels when I was 14 and this nurtured my love for literature.
13. I'm a complete perfectionist and put a lot of pressure on myself for everything to be PERFECT! If I feel like it's not then I've failed even though others don't see the failure.
14. My first love was my Golden Labrador Ben who my family got when I was 5, he was my best friend and had the kindest and most gentle soul. Unlike my puppy Ralph, he's a tad mental.
15. I baked my first wedding cake a couple of weeks ago! Eeek!
16. I have two younger sisters who I think are absolutely amazing!
17. I love to sleep and can never sleep enough. Haha 8hours is a short nights sleep for me, I go to bed very early!
18. I lived in Australia for 6 months when I was 2 as my parents were working there. I don't remember it at all but i'm told that I picked up a bit of an accent whilst I was there.
19. I love to go for walks in the country and nothing makes me feel better, both physically and mentally than a nice long walk in the fresh air and beautiful countryside of Northern Ireland.
20. I'm a coffee addict and need at least two cups a day. The first one needs to be within 10mins of waking up otherwise I get majorly GRUMPY!

And there you go, now you know everything about me, well, there might be a wee bit more. I would love to know a fact about you, so please feel free to share in the comments. Thanks so much for reading,

Rachael xx.

February Favourites

Hiya all and Happy Friday! Yay, we made it to the weekend! I am particularly excited about this weekend as, you may or may not know, we are picking up our new puppy on Saturday! Eeep! We just can't contain our excitement. So, the weekend should be filled with puppy cuddles and maybe a wee bit of training too! I also have a load of baking to do for an event on Sunday night, so that should be fun with a new puppy! I can't wait to show you him, expect lots of puppy spam in Monday's post! Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?

Today's post is my February Favourites and i'm a little late with this post, I just had so many other posts I wanted to share with you first! This a brief summary of a few of the things I have been loving in February both foodie, fashion and of course Netflix! Here we go....

-Twining's Cherry and Cinnamon Tea

I mentioned how much I loved this tea in this post. It tastes so sweet and yummy, just like a cherry bakewell. I found that I kept turning to this tea time and time again for my evening cuppa! You should definitely give this tea a try if you're not into traditional teas and need something to curb your sweet tooth upon an evening!

-Tesco Recipe Cards

These have been amazing for my meal planning throughout the month! I love trying new recipe resources, especially free ones, and these cards are just amazing. I've tried a few of them and they are so tasty. If you have a look through some of my 'what I eat in a day' posts you can see my review of the individual recipes.

-Netflix's 'The OA'

My husband and I started watching this after we finished 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' (also SO SO AMAZING!) on Netflix. It is such a different style of program for us to watch, quite similar to 'Stranger Things' but also very different. You couldn't put this show into a particular genre, it's got a bit of everything in it. I loved it a lot but it was pretty mind-boggling in places. Give this show a watch if you liked 'Stranger Things' and if you like to have your brain a bit melted upon an evening.

-Daffodils

Need I say more? Daffodils just embody spring to me and have been making myself and my house feel particularly cheery on a dark and dreary February day.

- Sainsbury's Tu Spring clothing collection

Tu's spring clothing collection is on point, it is so good! I've never been one to buy clothes in a Supermarket before except in emergencies but I think in future I will always check them out first. Firstly, the prices are amazing and they often do promotion weekends, when I went I got 25% of everything I bought (quite a lot ha, so the discount adds up!). And secondly you can get everything in the one place and get your groceries at the same time, win win! I bought this gorgeous embroidered grey jumper and blush pink long woollen cardigan for about £20, both of which are HUGE trends for Spring! I also picked up a navy pleated midi-skirt, a Breton tee and a few bits for the husband.

And there you have it a couple of my favourites for the month of February. Is there anything that you have been loving lately or you think I should try? Let me know in the comments! I'm away now to get my bake on, have a lovely weekend everyone and thank you so much for reading,

Rachael xx.

Hello 2017!

Hello my lovelies, I hope you are all doing well! I'm back with some thoughts for 2017, you've probably seen a lot of these kind of posts floating about the blogosphere. As I have already said I love the new year, I love a chance to evaluate my life and discover what's working, what isn't and any improvements I can make. Usually, I make a whole list of resolutions that I never keep and end up feeling pretty deflated that I haven't achieved enough during the year! Leading to the feeling that I am not enough, my life is not enough! However, this year i'm doing things slightly differently and setting myself five (yes only five!) ideas that I want to keep at the forefront of my mind this year! I'm not doing any fad diets, planning to lose any weight or exercise a certain number of times a week. These sorts of goals for me are unhealthy and doomed to fail. So what am I going to do this year, I hear you ask, well read on...

Spend more time outside

I live in the most beautiful country (it's true, you really should visit sometime!). Northern Ireland has many gorgeous beaches, forests, fields, mountains, parks and walks all within a short drive away (one perk of living in a small country!). I really am so lucky to live here. One of the things I would like to do this year is to spend more time outdoors appreciating this beautiful scenery. Whether that be a short and brisk cold evening walk in the winter or a long dander round the coast in the summer, i'm totally up for anything. I love my country and want to see everything it has to offer.

Read 12 books this year

Reading for me sort of fell by the wayside in 2016, but i'm hoping to re-ignite my passion for literature in 2017. I think that 12 books a year is a pretty good target, I've nearly finished my first one, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (amazing, in case you were wondering!). I'm a pretty fast reader, an English Degree can do that to a person. Once I get into a book there is no stopping me! So, if you have any recommendations please feel free to comment down below!

My health is my wealth

This idea is something I was thinking a lot about in 2016 as I was not taking care of myself like I should have been. In 2017 I just want to focus on my health, not in the diet 'I need to eat more healthily' sense, i'm very happy with my diet but in the case of my mind. I want to learn to think more positively, embrace life and enjoy it fully. Another thing I want to get cracked is a sleep routine. I could literally sleep all the time, anywhere, so I just want to get a nice clean sleep. What does this mean I here you ask? Well, going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time, and spending some time before bed clearing my head of thoughts and worries from the day.

Love more

Quite a simple one really I just want to love more! Love life more and all the people and animals that live in it! Whether that be my lovely hubby, my family, my friends, my pets or even strangers. This is such an easy one to say but probably the most difficult one to live out, people can be a little mean and rude (working in retail taught me that) but everyone needs a little bit of love.

Simplicity

I think many people are thinking about this for the new year! In 2017 I want to get away from endless consumption and the constant feeling of not having enough stuff! I want to reduce the amount of clothes that I have and work to free myself of all the clutter I have amassed over the years. Simplicity also refers to the approach I want to have to life, enjoy the simple things and simple joys in life. Simple, hopefully!

So, there you go, some things that I am thinking about going into the new year! It's maybe a bit late but I didn't want to jump into committing myself to anything, these are well considered goals for the year! What are your goals for the year, i would love to know? Sorry that this post got a little personal I will be back with the foodieness soon, until then, thank you for reading,

Rachael xx.