Panela sugar from columbia

I'm taking a break from rapadura sugar and have been using panela in baking and also in my tea in the morning, I like it because it's a hybrid of molasses and brown sugar it's made by cooking the juice from sugar cane into a thick sticky good which is then moulded into blocks. There is so many dangers around consuming white and refined sugars, in my kitchen panela is getting a good workout. You can buy it from your organic grocer or whole foods store, it's around $4 a packet and I can imagine this will taste great with porridge in winter with fresh berries. On a food as medicine tip it's super high in minerals and is a low gi food for those with blood sugar issues.

Ten tips to get you through the in-between week

1. Eat less, yes, even the Christmas left-overs

2. Connect with friends and family

3. Drink lots of water, and if your drinking more alcohol than usual have 2 glasses water per alcoholic drink

4. Review the year, appreciate your accomplishments and focus on these for next year

5. Start the day with some spirilina in organic apple juice, mix furiously with a teaspoon or have with yogurt and fruit

6. Be grateful for what you have and keep relaxed and calm so you end the year well

7. Clear out the fridge and cupboard of expired processed and packaged foods (yikes I'm hoping you don't have any of these in the first place !) let's call them dry good's.

8. Start cooking a little more each day and be free with you improvisation of recipes, a chef whom I admire once told me you can always fix a cooking mistake just don't be afraid to try new thing's.

9. Cook with love and reckless abandonment

10. Be kind to strangers and smile at one new person as you have time this is the in-between week.

Chef goes surfing

Yeah so it is the in-between week which means working from home and playing with friends in the sea, although the weather has been so crap so I have been in a movie marathon catching up on new films and some old ones. Christmas lunch was at my aunt's and I'm not allowed to lift a finger so I have had my head in cookbooks the last 2 day's getting ready for new menu's and a cooking extravaganza. My boyfriend gave me Jamie's America cookbook for chrissie and what a treat, since my recent USA trip's and doing the food styling gig for Mad Mex, I can't get enough of this amazingly fresh and delicious cuisine so get ready for some Mexican wholefoods.
Hope your relaxing enjoying the in-between week somewhere warm or maybe in the surf like me.