Sprinkle Up Your Taste Buds - Nutworks Gourmet Sprinkles Range

Sprinkle up your taste buds

As a food blogger, recipe developer and local food ambassador I am so excited about the NEW Gourmet Sprinkle range from Nutworks found in Queensland Woolworths Stores Stores and made right here on the Sunshine Coast.

Nutworks have brought me on board to promote this delicious new product range.

This Sprinkles range has me excited. Nutworks are well known for having natural and healthy high quality ingredients and with these products even the simplest dish can become extraordinary from just one of these packets of flavour.

For example my Savoury Smokey Zucchini Herb Muffins with cream cheese frosting came alive with the Gourmet Sprinkles. Just by adding the Nutworks Texas Smoked Sprinkles the muffins have instant wow factor.

RECIPE >>> CLICK HERE
The Gourmet Sprinkle Range has been a conceptual idea for some time. In 2013 Nutworks created the original flavours and held a focus group for invited foodie and local business guests to come and taste the original and first trials of these sprinkles. The sprinkles were well received.  Over the next year and a half the recipes were refined, trialled and improved. At the same time Nutworks team were pitching the concept to the market. Finally at the end of 2014 the Gourmet Sprinkle Range was accepted as part of a 1 year contract into selected Queensland Woolworths Stores.

An exciting development for local food on the Sunshine Coast indeed.

What I absolutely love about the Gourmet Sprinkles range is how they not only taste sensational but how healthy they are for you as well.

Nuts are very important in a well-rounded diet. The diversity of flavours within the sprinkle range ensures that there is an opportunity at every meal to get the recommended serve of nuts for your daily intake. Research shows that nuts reduce your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and can help with weight management.

And these ranges are just using natural ingredients and spices to create outstanding flavours.
Sprinkles are perfect for busy multi-tasking mums and families. Great for creating an outstanding dish for a dinner party, an event or just delicious family dinners without all the hassle of trying to perfect flavour combinations and spending heaps of time in the kitchen.

With flavour ranges of:

SAVOURY

·      Texas Smoked Almond

·      Asian Cashew

·      Mushroom, Rosemary Walnut

·      Lime Pepper Cashew

SWEET

·         Banana Coconut Boost

·         Raspberry Crumble Boost

·         Lime Coconut Boost

·         Apple and Cinnamon Boost

The Sprinkles Gourmet Range has a flavour combo to make any meal or snack outstanding.

I am really looking forward to working with Nutworks, a local food producer that I love to promote this range and craft some stunning recipes around them so stay tuned to the blog, newsletter and facebook and Instagram for more information and recipes!!
And if your wanting to try the ranges yourself they are even currently on special at Woolworths stores until the 19/09/2015

Check out the hash tags to find out what others are doing with the sprinkles and share your own ideas and recipes!

#Sprinkles #Nutworks #Allnutswelcome #TEXASalmond #Nutworkssprinkles #sprinklelove
#nutsforsprinkles #cookingwithBek 

Disclosure:
I am currently working as a paid product ambassador for Nutworks with their new Gourmet Sprinkles range, all opinions however are my own.
Recipes (c)RebeccaMugridge2015

FUTURO review and my personal health toolkit.

FUTURO review and my personal health toolkit.

When you become a mum you sacrifice, you give, and you do everything in your power to raise healthy, happy and protected children. 

And then you get a bit older and things start to weaken or show wear and tear or maybe even illness or disease strikes and you realise how little effort you may have been putting into looking after YOU as well. 

Now when you have medical issues I think you can either become a sufferer or a doer, just like the glass half full scenario. I have decided to be a doer and find the best ways to help me and my body, as it is after all my only body, to better cope with life and live a long, healthy, happy one.

While I am only 35 I come from a family with (amongst other things) lots of Osteoarthritis and I myself have also been told I have Ankylosing Spondylitis and scoliosis so my joints and back can be very painful and does need extra tender loving care.

And you know what? These days I am doing pretty darn good. Yes, there is pain, and discomfort but I feel like I have an awesome toolkit at my disposal helping me now! 

Yep, a toolkit! 

Just like you might have for your house or your car.  A toolkit of things that help you, aid you, make a real difference to your quality of life. What is in mine?? 

*EXERCISE. My Rheumatologist told me exercise is even more important for me than the average 35 year old as it will actually help my body to cope better, things like squats and lunges (yikes, I don’t think I will ever like them) help strengthen my muscles and take the pressure off my joints so I am doing sets of exercises every day. I am also back into walking and about to get into a Pilates or yoga class. 
*POSTURE, MASSAGE and PHYSIO TREATMENTS. With my physio I am practising better posture. 
*PLANT BASED ANTI INFLAMMATORY EATING. With my diet I am eating a plant based, clean diet full of green smoothies, fresh juices, soups, salads, fruit platters, raw desserts and (because I can’t help myself – chocolate, my old friend, though, in my defence, mostly refined sugar free chocolate ). It is very much simple foods that I am eating and lots of leafy greens and foods as close to natural as possible – and it is working! My inflammation levels on blood tests have plummeted and I lost 15 kilos! 
*ALKALINE WATER. With my new water filter jug, that I LOVE I have been drinking alkaline water every day, as have my kids! 
*HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS. With my naturopath I am taking silica, turmeric, fish oil, high vitamin c, zinc, pro biotics, glutamin and a herbal mixture. 
*FUTURO SUPPORT. And for my body I am now trying out 
Futuro Custom Dial Stabilising Supports 

I am using these cool innovations, especially when I am doing repetitive work which normally gives me lots of pain. I have to be honest, at first I wasn't so sure they would help as I have tried plenty of creams, braces and things in the past but I did actually feel a difference the first day I was wearing them, especially the wrist ones. These braces by Futuro are specially engineered to give protection and comfort and most of all firm reliable support to weakened or injured areas like wrists, elbows and knees. The supports feature Boa Technology Inc. ‘click to fit’ dials, so they are adjustable throughout the day with the simple twist of a dial, providing the level of support needed by you and giving you control over how it works for you.  

AND my girls thought I looked like Iron Man – so it was the added bonus of instant cool mummy cred too! 

Futuro wrist braces – giving mums pain relief , support AND instant Iron Man coolness!! 

One thing I have absolutely learnt in the last few years is that pain robs your life of JOY. It is a happiness thief, it makes you short tempered, grumpy, dismissive and stops you enjoying each and every moment with your children. 

I also learnt that prescription pain relief doesn’t really help with joint, back and neck pain either. It just takes the edge off and makes you feel vague and tired, plus it puts so much extra stress on your liver and kidneys! And it doesn’t address the problem of why the pain is there either. 

What I now know is it is having a toolkit at our disposal; a balanced, chemical free toolkit, like a great physio, herbal supplements, exercises and tools like these Futuro Custom Dial supports can give us our joy back. 

It can make living in our body much more comfortable so we can get back to the more important things in life like bug hunting in the garden with 4 year olds and braiding 9 year old hair to look like Elsa. 

If I can share any wisdom with fellow mums it is get yourself a great tool kit and support system for your body and your health, it makes a world of difference and you need to take care of yourself because while your kids are your world, you are theirs. 

This is some of my personal toolkit this year – giving me my JOY back.

Bek xoxox 

This is a sponsored blog post as I was paid to review the Futuro Custom Dial supports. 

All opinions are my own and I do very much believe in my "toolkit" and only endorse products I believe in.

If you suffer from joint pain, or have someone you love that does pop over and have at their full product range HERE for medication free support options available out there. After all our bodies have to cope with so many chemicals and things already, anything natural that helps is a really good thing!


Please note the information in this post is based on the author, Bek's own personal experiences and does not in any way give out medical information or replace a consultation with your health care professional, it is for your reading pleasure only. Please always seek and follow expert advice for any and all health concerns you may have before undertaking any kind of treatment, natural or otherwise.

WATER. Hydration for Health & Happiness and a water filter review

WATER
Beautiful, life sustaining water.
I think in modern times, and even especially now that healthy eating has become so very in, we often forget the simple things and one of the most important ingredients of all for a healthy, happy life, WATER...

Up to 60% of the human body is water, every cell in our body uses water. We need water to function, to live and yet so many people don't drink enough water! And don't worry for many years that was me too...
More and more studies have been done that show dehydration to be found in almost every known disease to mankind and it also makes almost every illness's symptoms worse.
Think about it, when something is seriously wrong what do they do in hospital? Put you on a drip! Because they know how important proper hydration is.
Last year I read an incredible book on this very subject coming from decades of medical research called, "Your not sick, your dehydrated."

Wow, what an amazing book and eye opening read.

It wasn't long after reading it and being inspired to include much more water into my day that I began to really notice and worry about the chemicals and toxins found in tap water.
I can totally understand why they are in there. Council's have to make sure no moulds, bacteria or anything harmful gets into people's drinking water, no easy feat when it usually comes from lakes and dams I can imagine.
BUT, if I am making all this healthy, chemical free, beautiful food and trying really hard to have a chemical free house then surely these chemicals are counterproductive?

It was right when I was thinking this over and wondering also at the state of the inside also of my rainwater tank which the owner told em he wasn't sure had been ever cleaned (eek, I know right) that I was contacted about reviewing an amazing, high tech, extremely efficient (and complicated)  in home water filtration system that conveniently is all inside a handy jug!

It is just the perfect size for a family, would fit into any household and is portable so also very convenient for anyone who is renting.
And while the process it undertakes to clean and energise the water is highly complex, you don't have to do much of anything! (Perfect for a busy mum like me) who has little time for more complicated things in life.

It is even designed into an attractive jug that would not clash with any kitchen decor either for that matter.
Which funnily enough has always been of great importance to me and my kitchen purchases ;)

I also LOVE that the company you buy it from is created by Joanne Musgrave, a certified health coach who uses her own training along with naturopath Julie McNab to offer a range on her website that you know has been really well researched, not just the ingredients but the company itself too and their ethics. What is there is beautiful products and you know you can trust what you find at Shop Naturally.

Now this means a lot to me, and I really place a lot of value in businesses that take their products and their word on said products seriously. This makes my life so much easier as a shopper and busy mum and also gives me great respect and admiration for their integrity and passion.
I am just delighted to say that Shop Naturally is one such business.

I don't have hours and hours of spare time to research everything, I just don't so when I can trust a beautiful business that makes my life and shopping experiences so much better.
On the Sunshine Coast I have this trust with the Jeffers Market stores where I know Stephen Jeffers would not stock anything he had not extensively researched and now I have it online at Shop Naturally now I have discovered them too.

The water jug I reviewed and fell in love with is called

Waters Co Bio Mineral Pot Ace 1.5L Water Filter Jug
Check out out here 

It is 1.5 litre, adds minerals back into your water, has a nine stage filtration system, alkalines the water and filters out chlorine and fluoride.

" The 9 filtration stages are: prefilter, activated carbon filter medium, ion exchange resin, bio organic alkaline minerals, organic germanium, far infrared and magnets. They filter out chlorine, heavy metals, fluoride, nitrate, odours, sediment, bacteria, cysts & viruses. At the same time, the filtration system adds around 60 bio organic trace minerals & restructures the water molecules to significantly increase cellular hydration, adding 'Ki' (Life energy)." Website quote. 

It even comes with a PH testing kit, something as a horticulturalist I was very impressed with and interested in.
I have long since suspected the Sunshine Coast water to be acidic and I found out I was right and considering research also sais that cancer can only live in an acid environment I think we all want to improve our bodies PH to be more alkaline and one of the easiest ways to do this is drinking alkaline water everyday.

Improving your hydration and becoming alkaline improves your skin, eyes, hair, weight, mood, bowel movements and is said to be powerful healing for everyone and especially people with auto immune diseases, arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Reactive Arthritis, asthma, chrons, eczema etc etc

Drinking more water always sounds simple but in reality so often ends up being a bit slap dash!!
I find this jug not only gives me better tasting water that is so much better for me and my family but it also keeps me accountable too as I know just how many times I should be refilling it and drinking from it for me and my two gorgeous girls everyday!

Thank you goes to Shop Naturally for this review and for introducing me to an easy way to beautiful, clean, alkaline healing water for me and my children.

Eat Beautiful, Be Active, Live Well, Find Calm AND stay hydrated!

LOVE Bek XX

Christmas Love with Myer Giftorium

Last week I got to do something pretty fun.

Kids Business invited me to a special bloggers event the launch of the Myer #Giftorium!Now I LOVE Christmas, it is one of the happiest times of the year for me, the decorations, the gift wrapping, the gift buying, the shopping, the making, the cooking, the relaxing, THE FOOD, the family and friends getting together, the shared meals and festivities, the events and outings, the Christmas lights, the Santa photo's, the decorations ( I said that already didn't I...?Well they are pretty wonderful, maybe I am just ornament obsessed ;) 

My favourite ornaments for our tree this year, personalised baubles for my girls, what a wonderful idea Myer!
These are available through all Myer stores after November 8th

A beautiful princess carriage - sigh - and an event calender that is timeless, classic and has no sugar filled treats that the kids would want to eat at 6 in the morning #winner

I caught a train, by myself,  from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane for the event and it felt really odd at first as I always do everything with my kids, like everything. My kids are my world and I love spending time with them so when anything special or fun comes up I find it hard to think of the experience without them.
But, since making looking after me a priority in my life too, doing things just for me and getting to know me time all by myself all over again I am making the effort to take adventures on my own too.
At first I felt a little guilty, then peaceful, then exhilarated and when I saw all the amazing fun for kids at the new Myer Giftorium I felt guilt all over again, ok, maybe only briefly I was enjoying myself too much!

I even got an AWESOME arm workout striding through the city to my train carrying all my goodies! And PS a soda stream PLAY is an awesome idea for a Christmas present for the kiddos!! Watch my BLOG for some very exciting refined sugar FREE recipes coming soon or look up my PINK LEMONADE recipe in the search button.

I was very impressed with the whole event organised by Kidsbusiness it was beautifully set out, the shopping was incredible and there was magicians, face painters, balloon twisters, personal shoppers called gifticians and so much helpful staff to make Christmas shopping relaxed and stress free.
Yes, I am all for anything that helps us bring more CALM and JOY into our lives.
From November 8th all 67 Myer stores will have their own Giftorium, personal shopper experiences, gift wrapping, Santa, Vista print (I am SO excited about that!!) and staff in funky Christmas themed outfits and weekend entertainment for the kids.
Really I think Myer is going all out to bring the magic back to Christmas and as a big fan (or the child inside maybe) I was in awe and cannot wait to take my kids to both the Brisbane Myer and our local Sunshine Coast Myer store this Christmas and do some Christmas shopping in amongst all the fun.
Some of the themed sections of the Giftorium which features over 2.2 million products include:
Miracle Mum
Glamour Gran
Dapper Dad
Trendy Young Things
Kids Cubby
Paws Corner (yes, the pets have a gift section!)
Globe Trotter
Techno Freak
Food Fanatic (Oh I saw all sorts of lovely kitchen things here!!)
Hop, Skip, Juice (for health & Fitness fans - oh yeah, this section rocked)
and all the Christmas ornaments, decorations and pieces - sigh...so beautiful!

Check out the hashtag #GIFTORIUM across social media to see pictures from right around Australia!Plus in store they will have a huge digital screen showcasing all photos from Instagram with that hashtag!Why not check it out and then join the fun :)

You can see my instagram snaps at @Bekmugridge


Bek XXX

Note: Opinions are my own,  I have received goods in payment.

Freshen up this Spring with Kiwi Fruit! Plus Kiwi & Pineapple Pina Coladas

 

Kiwi fruit are so gorgeous, and yet can be sometimes an overlooked fruit.
They are so versatile, affordable and easy for kids to eat, my youngest has eaten so many lately, they would have to be up there as one of her all time favourite fruits! Recently I was contacted to try out the New Zealand Zespri GOLD kiwifruit (insert happy 3 year old) - and they are stunning!

 

Of course coming from pristine New Zealand I was expecting a fresh, crisp flavour anyway and I wasn't disappointed, they are beautiful and such high quality and keep well in the fruit bowl as well, which is so great for planning out those fruit breaks at school. The kids love the pretty gold colour and they are perfect for kids fruit breaks for school, kindy or after sports.

They also go beautifully in a fruit salad or platter for the whole family - or maybe just for mum! ;)
 

According to Zespri, these gold kiwifruit are fantastic for digestive health and I don't know about you but anything that makes my digestion, gut and bowels happy makes me happy!
(Especially after 2 babies if you know what I mean ; )

These gold kiwifruit are SO good for you!
Quoted from Zespri Website:
"Fibre in kiwifruit is made up of pectins, hemicelluloses and celluloses, which give it certain properties, such as the ability to retain water and form gels. It can have a significant effect on digestion:

• Reducing the glucose absorption rate, so that the GI is lowered and blood sugar levels remain stable
• Increasing the sense of fullness, since the fibre acts to increase viscosity and slow gastric emptying
• Increasing the frequency of bowel movements
• Reducing the sensation of bloatedness
• Reducing the time of intestinal transit

Actinidin is a protease found in kiwifruit, which breaks down proteins and facilitates gastric digestion. This natural enzyme has the ability to break-down a wide range of food proteins more completely and faster than the digestive enzymes can do on their own. Actinidin was most effective on proteins found in beef and chicken, fish, pulses and cereals (gluten and soya protein isolate), and dairy products such as milk, cottage cheese and yogurt.
The digestive benefits of actinidin:

• Improves the digestion of proteins by reducing the sensation of heaviness associated with protein-rich foods
• Improves the absorption of proteins
• Improves digestive comfort"

Raw kiwifruit is also a great source of folic acid, potassium, vitamin c, e and antioxidents.
For more information on the health benefits of the kiwi head to the Zespri Website.

With their lovely zing, we are enjoying ours mainly fresh, as is, cut in half with a spoon, sliced into fruit salads and platters, baked into a delicious kiwi banana bread (get this recipe next week on the blog too) and my FAVOURITE way

Fresh and Fabulous Mocktail
Kiwi and Pineapple Pina Colada

Ingredients

4 Zespri Gold Kiwifruit

1/2 a large or 1 small fresh pineapple

1/2 cup organic coconut cream

1 can coconut water (I use Jt's Coconut Essence as it is my favourite)

Method

Chop the fresh pineapple into chunks.

Take the skin off the kiwifruit and chop into pieces.

Add all ingredients into a blender and blitz until you have a lovely, runny texture.

Serve over crushed ice.

Enjoy!

 

Notes

My kids absolutely love this and it is a perfect pick me up if you are running from school pick up to an after school activity like sports or dance! ( Can you tell I am a dance mum??) I make some ahead and store in glass bottles with lids in the fridge so I can have them ready to be enjoyed when I pick them up and we are zipping around.

Turn them into icypoles! Simply pour into icy pole moulds and freeze - note do it right away before any separating might occur.

I am in kiwifruit heaven right now and am just SO delighted to have a GIVEAWAY for you!!

Zespri Gold kiwifruit have for 1 lucky reader the chance to win a $30 Woolworths gift card so you can go out and buy some of these gorgeous gold kiwifruit and try the pina coladas yourself and also a beautiful kiwifruit bowl!
How fun is that!
Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


NOTE:
This is in no way endorsed by or run in conjunction with facebook.
This is an independent giveaway.
Winner will be notified by email and has 2 weeks to claim prize or there may be a redraw.
Competition open to Australian residents only.
Winner must have left a blog post comment to be eligible.
This giveaway is brought to you by Zespri Kiwifruit.
All information in this post is intended for interest only, please always seek advice from a health care professional in regards to your health and diet.