Protein Pancake

Since the British Open back in May, my training has finally got back on track and I have fallen back in love with Jiu Jitsu. We never really fell out of love, we just had a hic-cup and had to deal with a few changes. The changes being that of now training and competing under another team.

With all the posts about 'Creonte's' on the Facebook UK BJJ group, a part of me wondered if thats what I was?
For those who don't know, Creonte was the name of a Brazilian TV soap character. He was a traitor. Carlson Gracie named those who left the team, started their own and fought in competitions against their old team, a Creonte. At least this is what I was told!

The emphasis is always on the fault of the student for leaving the team, and it's been interesting reading posts of those who had to change teams due to moving, work commitments or just generally not getting on with their coach.
We are only human, and when you have a coach, you need to respect them and look up to them and really feel comfortable knowing that they are the right person to help you on your Jiu Jitsu journey. It is after all our own personal journey, even though we are part of a team, we train, compete and put our body through hell to make ourselves better.

So am I a Creonte for changing teams? No, I don't feel like it anyway. I now train under BJJ Revolution Team International who are a branch of the Carlson Gracie Team tree. My new coach is Eduardo Gonçalves (Black Belt) and Mark Nixon (Brown Belt). I've been training with Edu in East London, and with Mark and the team in Felixstowe. Yes it's a long way for me to go for training, especially as I'm right in the middle of both academies, but when you love something as much as I love Jiu Jitsu, you will make the effort to make it part of your routine. I've known the guys a long time, pretty much all of my Jiu Jitsu life as they often trained or taught seminars at Carlson Gracie Essex.
So whats different about BJJ Revolution team training? Nothing. Everyone is there to learn, train hard and do a good job when competing. The training is tough, the students are awesome, and I've met some great people who I can call friends.  My next competition will be in Nice, France on the 4th July and I'm excited to travel abroad again and represent the team well.

This Sunday we had a ladies training session in Felixstowe. There was only a few of us. We went over basics, chokes, more advanced positions and had plenty of sparring at the end. It was a good session and hopefully the ladies got a lot from it. I certainly did.
The session was open to all gyms and it was a good introduction for beginners and a refresher for those a bit more advanced.
We will definitely hold more sessions as it was a lot of fun.

Ladies training - Jolie, Katie, Freya, Jemma & Jenny

Thanks to Katie for bringing the Strawberry Protein cookies for the end of the session. They were really lovely. I've never made Protein cookies before, so maybe I'll save that for another blog.

This blog recipe is all about breakfast!
I love breakfast so much and feel its so important to me to start the day fuelled and ready to take it on. There is another pancake recipe that my friend Haley gave me and I blogged about it a while back, but I actually feel this is so much better. Sorry Hayley!

Ingredients:

Banana
Peach or Nectarine
2 Tablespoons of flax seed
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Moringa powder
Honey
Coconut oil

Method:

Melt a teaspoon of coconut oil in a small non stick pan on a low heat.
In a blender, whizz half a banana, half a peach or nectarine, add 2 tablespoons of flax seeds, 2 Eggs and one teaspoon of Moringa powder all together. Add to the pan of melted oil and cook until brown on one side. When it's ready, flip it over and cook the other side for a minute or two.
Turn on to a plate and add honey and the remaining banana and peach.

Pancake with Moringa - I was told it looked like Jabba....!

This pancake honestly keeps me completely full until after lunch. It's delicious. If you don't like the idea of a green pancake, you don't have to add the Moringa, and it's perfectly fine without it.

Pancake without Moringa

Enjoy!
Jolie x

Banana and Almond muffins

Life really is moving at a fast pace, and it's only when I come to write my blog that I notice this even more. I fill my time and days with abundance and make the most of what life has to offer.

On the 10th May, I drove my friend Ashley and I up to Nottingham to the ladies Super Seminar. It was hosted Yas Wilson, Gret Zoeller, Vanessa English and Leoni Munslow. All four brilliant Jiu Jitsu Practitioners who showed something different that demonstrates their game and strength in Jiu Jitsu.
I partnered up with Lanchana Green, who I later found out is an MMA fighter and accomplished Muay Thai fighter.
We enjoyed drilling the techniques shown from standing, closed guard, half guard and spider guard. Thankfully we had enough time to drill them so that they sunk in to remember in training. Then we did a couple of minutes of sparring then moved on to the next person. I was lucky enough to spar with Yas and Vanessa, and great to Spar with Leoni who I never had the chance to before.
There was a raffle, plenty of photos and a lot of fun had on the afternoon.
The great thing was that the money raised went to the ladies fund for their trip to the Worlds. Rather than just ask people for money on donation pages, they gave something back. I'm really looking forward to the other seminar they have planned in London.

Super Seminar

The Worlds tournament was the weekend just gone. Although Leoni was the only British lady to bring home a medal, I know that the others fought their hearts out and gave it their all. I respect and admire them so much, and their painting a brilliant picture of inspiration for the ladies in the UK who train and compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Lanchana, Vanessa, Leoni, Jolie & Gret

The following weekend was the British BJJ Open in Coventry. I had fought up a weight category to light weight. It gave me the opportunity to work more on my strength and build muscle for future competitions. After the Europeans, I knew that strength was what I was lacking. If I'm serious about competing, working on my flaws is crucial. I dropped a Jiu Jitsu training class and added another strength class to my weekly program. The only down side was that when I weighted in at the British, I was at the lower end of the weight, where I'm usually the top end of the lower weight. It was a huge challenge, but I was up for it.
My first fight was with Kate Jackson, and MMA fighter and a very good purple belt. She won by 3 points for passing my guard. She had amazing strength. Although I lost, I was happy with the fight.
There were only 4 ladies in the division, so I was given a default Bronze medal. This gave me the opportunity to fight again in the open class.

Female Purple Lightweight Division

It was the luck of the draw, and I got to fight Kate again. This was a better fight for me, even though I lost by more points, I escaped an arm bar and almost got a sweep and tried for an inverted guard sweep.

Escaping an arm bar

Dickie Martin from Carlson Gracie Team coached me from the side of the mats, as he did for everyone in the team. He gave me some valid points, and new things to learn. You might think it's crazy that I could be happy with losing, but this is just the beginning of another journey for me. I'm happy to make mistakes now, so I can work on them and come back better and take home the gold again.

Absolute Champion Kat Hill

Since the British Open, I've been spending more time in my strength gym Mi-Gym in Chelmsford. I've been attending Power Strength classes taught by Will Wayland. The class focuses more on technique to help you lift more. After the first two classes, the weight I lift on my back squats and bench press had increased by 5kg. Will said I'm stronger than I think I am and need to believe in myself more. I've noted the weights, and each week I will see the progression I'm making.

Hanging out at Mi-Gym

In the past week my diet has been back on track. At the start of my clean diet I had weighed 60.3kg. This is more than I've weighed in 2 and a half years. After the British Open, I ate everything in my path!! It's something I do and have always done after competitions. It's like I'm congratulating myself with food and getting prepared to eat super clean again. I need that time to eat whatever I want before being strict with myself again.

The Bank Holiday 'Murph' team

When I do get back on track, I forget how good clean food makes me feel. Sugar gives me a massive high, then a massive low. Healthy food keeps the stability of energy running throughout the day.
In a week I had dropped 1.7kg through eating good healthy food and I wasn't hungry at any point. I've been keeping a note of the food I have been eating and will post the plan that works for me on this blog.

My next competition is the Nice International Open in France. It's on the 4th July and although I have a month to get to my comfortable competition weight of 56kg, I need to keep my strength and skills training balanced and keep eating clean so I can feel in great shape for the competition.


Yesterday I made some gorgeous Muffins. I took them to training last night and I had to explain to everyone that they were healthy. They are fresh, gluten free and the only sugar in them was the natural sugar found in the honey. These are proof that you can have goodies when keeping a healthy diet.

Here is how I made them.

Ingredients:

3 very ripe bananas
3 eggs
1/3 Cup of Coconut flour
1/2 Cup of Ground Almonds
Heaped Tbsp of honey (melted)
Heaped Tbsp of Almond Butter
1 Tsp of vanilla extract
1/2 Tsp of Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp of Bicarbonate of Soda
1 Tsp of Cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
In a food processor, mix the bananas, eggs, vanilla extract, almond butter and honey. Whizz until everything is completely combined and there are no lumpy banana bits.
In a bowl add the Coconut flour, ground almonds, soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix these well then add the wet ingredients.
Combine everything, then add to 12 muffin cases. I used silicone cases as they don't stick.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until they are brown. Cool in the cases for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Enjoy with a nice cup of afternoon tea.

Jolie x

Spiral Tart

So many people ask me where I find the time to fit so much in. Well I'm an extremely organised person and write a lot of to do lists so I don't forget. This food blog has been on my list for a while, but time hasn't been on my side.
The start of the year was great, plenty of training for the European championships in Lisbon, then the competition itself. It was my first as a purple belt and I was petrified! There were only 4 ladies in my division and one of them was my friend Carol. Thankfully we were on opposite sides of the brackets, so I had a Brazilian lady to fight. She was tough and swept me and won by 2 points. I got a default Bronze medal for my effort, and entered myself for the open class. I had one more fight with a much bigger girl and she won by 2 points again. It was a great experience and I came away knowing what I needed to work on, my strength!

With Carlson Gracie Jnr

First Purple belt competition

Since then I competed in the Kleos competition in High Wycombe. A very well run small competition  with 3 purple belt feather weights in one division. I came second after two fights and a very good and technical final, but I got caught with a choke.

I went on to compete in another small competition, the Southend Open where there was just two of us. I was up against a very experienced Jiu Jitsu practitioner, referee and competitor, and I won by submission!

Last month I went to New York. My cousin lives on the Upper East side of Manhattan, and I hadn't seen James in about 18 months when he was here for a very sad occasion. So I thought that a trip to New york would do me the world of good and James too!
The trip coincided with the New York open and the New York No Gi open. It would be the first time that I would be competing in a competition where I knew absolutely no one. At most competitions there is a team mate, or someone who you know from another team. Not this time. It was a challenge I was ready for.

My first night in new york was an early one. I got to my cousins apartment, met his lovely flat mate Lexi and went for a nap. 12 hours later I woke up and was ready to start the day exploring. I bought a weekly travel card and smashed the living day lights out of it! I went absolutely everywhere!!!
The first day alone I visited Central Park, Time Square, Grand Central, crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, hung out in DUMBO then went out to see the New York Yankees play baseball. It was freezing, so we didn't stay for the end. Good thing really because they lost.

Times Square

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

James & Jolie at the Yankees game

New York Yankees game

The next day was one of my highlights. My cousin Lindsay is CSS for Virgin Atlantic and flew in the day after me. She only gets one night in NY, so she took the train from New Jersey and met me at Penn station. It was so good to see her as it had been a few months. We hopped in a cab and went to Big Daddy's, an all American style diner where we met James for breakfast. It was quite surreal that all three of us Brits were in the same place at the same time. It was a good little catch up. James went to work, Lindsay went to get her plane back to the UK, and I went shopping.

Cousins - Lindsay, James & Jolie

Temptation had really set in when it came to seeing all the lovely cupcakes, Pretzels and the smell of Pizza in Little Italy. I was on weight for the Gi, but had to drop 300g to be in the safe zone for the No Gi the day after. I resisted, and my steel will power didn't get a single crack.

Saturday came and was the day of the competition. I wasn't competing until 2.30pm, so I wanted to make sure that I had made use of the morning, and I went to the Brooklyn Flea market. I bought a nice print that fitted nicely in my bag, then got myself off to the City college in Harlem.
As soon as I walked in the venue I was petrified. I had got there a couple of hours before my fight was due to start, got warmed up, went to the bull pen and saw that they had changed the fight time to an hour later. I could have kicked myself! I must have read it wrong on the website and wondered why the ladies weren't warming up when I did.
An hour later I was ready to go again. The lady I was fighting was smaller than me. Super feather can be really tricky as they are really wriggly and have a lot of technique. We got to the mats, shook hands, she pulled guard, but I just couldn't pass it. Everything I had learnt had gone out of the window and my muscle memory had ceased up. I almost passed twice, but she was too good and I was left in her spider guard for most of the match.
There were no points, no advantages, and she got the decision. I was gutted.
Straight away I signed up for the Open class. Waited around until 6.30pm to be told that no one else had entered. I was gutted again! I took my default gold and went back to my cousin's apartment and sulked.

Better try harder next time

Nyjah Easton - Super nice lady and awesome black belt competitor

Sunday morning came, I woke up far too early, was feeling really grumpy. I didn't want to compete today. I put a note on Facebook and thankfully I had some really good advice, and a couple of really nice messages from a team mate and a female black belt who I really respect and admire. I got a little more sleep and was buzzing for the day ahead.
Why do I do this? Why do I put myself through the training for a competition, the strict diet, the nerves and now the fact that no one from my team is here to support me, I have come here willingly on my own to support and challenge myself?
I can do this!

I bought cupcakes on the way, I listened to some of my DJ mixes, I found some Carlson Gracie Chicago team mates to hang out with and I was buzzed for the day.

My first fight was with a Brazilian lady called Aline. She was awesome, and very technical. She got a sweep, but I managed to pass her guard and go straight to mount. I won 7-2.
My second fight was the final against an American girl who was only 19 years old called Taylor. She was awesome too. I pulled guard, locked an arm bar, but she was good at stacking so it never went on. We had a very fun and technical fight, but it went to decision and she won. I didn't mind. Gold would have been awesome, and to beat someone who was 18 years younger than myself would have been incredible. But Taylor was one of the nicest girls I have come across in Jiu Jitsu, and it was the fight that mattered that day, and it was a great fight.

Fun in the feather weight division

After the open class and coming away with a Bronze after 2 fights, I stuffed my face with chocolate, cake, fizzy drinks, Pizza, then went out for drinks with James, laughed so much and got very tipsy on some interesting cocktails.
I could finally let my hair down, and it felt really, really good.

On the Monday, I got ready, had a decent breakfast and headed down to the Marcelo Garcia academy in the West Village. The first class was No Gi and taught by Matheus Diniz, a brown belt and I had recognised him from the day before at the Open. I partnered up with another girl who was also a visitor. It was a great class, and lots of effort went in to the details of the technique. The next class was Gi. After a warm up, everyone gathered round in a semi circle. The class was 50 people strong, and thats quite incredible for lunch time. There was a guy filming, so I just thought a technique was going to be shown and filmed for the website.
Marcelo gave a lovely speech about how proud he was of everyone for competing at the weekend. He asked some of the guys to get their medals and have a picture. Matheus, Mansher and Dillon all knelt down at the front and Marcelo went to get the team trophies. He knelt behind Matheus, undid his belt and replaced it with a black belt. He did the same with Mansher and Dillon. I couldn't actually believe what I was seeing. I've only ever seen a one black belt get their belt at one time and seeing that was special enough.
Even though I'm not in the same team and I was training there as a guest, it still brought a tear to my eye because you know these guys have worked so hard.
Marcelo made another speech, and kept stopping himself from crying every so often.
it was quite a moment.

With Marcelo Garcia

The class carried on with plenty of sparring and a lot of smiling faces due to the promotion. The atmosphere was lovely.

After the class I went to Chelsea Market, then on to the high line. I ate a smoked salmon and cream cheese Bagel, ice cream and a Prezel, and headed back for some more Jiu Jitsu.

The first class was basics. The second was intermediate and the last class was advanced. After 3 hours back to back training, I sat out for a couple of sparring rounds and had a chat with Marcelo. He is quite possibly one of the nicest, humble men I have ever met and it really reflects in his gym. The atmosphere was fun, people were so nice and respectful. They must get tonnes of visitors, but treat us with the same friendly face as they would their own team mates.
I wouldn't hesitate to go back here and I would highly recommend anyone who trains Jiu Jitsu to visit.

Five classes in one day, the day after a competition was harsh on my body. I ached so much by Tuesday, but I still went out and did some sight seeing. I visited the World trade centre which reduced me to tears. Mixed emotions of sadness and anger came over me, so I had to get out of there as soon as I could. So I went to Coney Island. A strange place, but I'm glad I went, walked along the lovely beach, ate cheesy chips and bought a bag of sugary sweets.

Later that night, I met James, Lexi and Emily for drinks, then we went on to Little Italy for Pizza.

My last day came and I had just two more things to tick off my list. I got myself on the Staten Island ferry, saw the statue of Liberty, went to Magnolia Bakery, bought far too many cakes, then headed up to the top of the Rock.

I got my bag from James's apartment, headed to JFK Airport, sat down in departures and got drunk on red wine.

New York was amazing, my life is amazing and I'm thankful for all the fun I have in it.


Now for the food!

It has taken me 4 attempts, but I finally figured out what was making my spiral tart so watery in the previous 3 attempts. I was using Buffalo Mozzarella rather than grated dry Mozzarella. Now it's perfect!

Ingredients:

Tart crust
1 Cup of almond flour
3 tbsp of Tapioca flour
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/4 cup of melted butter
1 large egg

Filling
200g Dry grated Mozzarella
200g Soured cream
1 tsp mixed dried herbs
1 Large Carrot
1 Large Courgette
1/2 Aubergine

Method:

Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Put the almond flour, tapioca, paprika, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and mix well. Add the egg and melted butter and mix until everything has combined.
Use a 9" tart tin and press the tart crust in to the tin and make sure every part of the inside has been covered. Place in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

Use a vegetable peeler and peel the carrots and courgettes in to strips. The Aubergine is quite hard to peel, so its better if you thinly slice this. Make sure the vegetables are all evenly sized with thickness.
Mix the Mozzarella, soured cream and herbs in to a bowl.
Once the tart crust is ready, pour the mixture in to the tart base and spread out evenly.
Chose which vegetable you want to start with first and gently place them round the edge, swapping to the next vegetable and the next, and continue until the vegetables have covered the base to the middle.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the vegetables have cooked well. Leave to cool, then serve with a nice big salad.

Enjoy!
Jolie x

Quinoa breakfast bake

How amazing was 2014!!?? It certainly was this for me.

The year started for me in Melbourne Australia. I had been visiting my boyfriends parents for Christmas, and as the weeks went on, I met a lot of new friends. We travelled to Sydney and to Airlie beach and got caught in a Cyclone, but caught up with some friends from England which made the trip even lovelier.

Training Jiu Jitsu with Ben Hall, Maryanne Mullahy and the guys at Nemesis in Melbourne

We carried on our travels to Singapore for a couple of days, and then to Thailand, finishing our 2 month adventure on the Island of Koh Samui.

Training in Singapore

As soon as we got home, we got straight back in to things. Being away was great, but you get a lot of time to think, and to plan goals. My goal for 2014 was to work hard and make things happen, especially with Jiu Jitsu as I am getting on a little now, and plans for 2015 would be a lot different to this one.

Muay Thai training at Cobra Gym on Koh Phagnan

While being away, I did manage to get on average 2 training sessions in per week, and we kept our fitness levels up with some Muay Thai, running and conditioning. I'm sure a lot of my training partners thought that I would lose my jits and my fitness, but I think they were surprised when I came back to the class a lot eager and ready than before. Less is more I guess!

My first competition of the year was in March at the Southend Open. I had 2 fights with the same person weirdly, and won both. I took my first gold medal of 2014 away with me.

Southend BJJ Open with Rebecca Gu

Local competitions are great, they get your nerves in check for bigger competitions that you have planned. My plan was to get my IBJJF ranking up as much as possible for 2014, then go to the World Masters in Los Angeles later in the year to really test myself.

My next competitions were in Rome in April, the Rome Open and the European No Gi. I won both my division and the Absolute in Rome, and two days later I won the European No Gi. I came second in the Absolute, but taking 3 out of 4 gold medals home was a good result.

Winning the Master 1 feather weigh division

Winning the Master 1 blue belt Absolute

European No Gi Light weight Champion

Second place in the European No Gi absolute

Medals from Rome

By the time May had arrived, just a month after I competed in Rome, I was feeling tired of the training and constant dieting, and something wasn't sitting right with me. I've never felt like I didn't want to be in a competition before. I had dropped down to Adult division and felt a little out of my depth. I'm 37 years old and was competing against ladies 18-29. I made a mistake.
I came away from the whole weekend with a default Bronze medal and a lot to think about if I wanted to keep competing.

Copenhagen Open

Mid May was the British Open. I still wasn't feeling that strong, but I loved the fact that my team mate Kat Gibson said that we should aim for a domination of the Blue belt featherweight division. Edyta was also in our division, so we did just that, we got the Carlson Gracie Gold, Silver and I took the Bronze. It was a good day for Carlson Gracie, and I even read about our podium success in someones blog!

Carlson Gracie domination in the ladies blue belt feather weight division

There was about 6 weeks until I competed again. I spent 2 weeks relaxing my diet, but keeping my training up to the usual 6-7 sessions a week, plus strength and cardio gym sessions to make up another 4. At the end of June I competed in Paris for the Gi and No Gi competitions. Over the 2 days I had 7 fights and came away with a Bronze for the Gi and Silver for the No Gi, plus a Bonze for the No Gi absolute.

Bronze medalist in Paris

Silver in the Paris No Gi

Bronze in the No Gi Absolute

It was time to relax, have another kind of fun, go on holiday, work hard in my busy job and eat what I wanted. I did all this and enjoyed the summer. I also decided to cut down on my training. It was making me too tired, and within a week, I noticed a huge difference in my energy levels. I had much more energy.

I had entered for the Masters Worlds on 1st November, booked my flights and got my training and diet plan in check. Normally I would cut alcohol out 6-8 weeks before competing as it suppresses my cardio levels. This wasn't a problem as one of my goals for the year was to cut it out completely for the whole of 2014.
I had cut my training down to just 5 times per week, then one cardio and one strength class. My energy levels were feeling really good. Less was definitely showing to be more.

Before the Worlds I competed in London to get my nerves in check. The Gi comp was great and just what I needed. I came away with a Silver medal, the best I've ever done in London.
The No Gi comp was the next day, but I was in a funny mood and the day started off bad, and I lost my fight. I didn't stay for either of the absolutes, as these can often lead to injuries.
I licked my wounds and kept training for the Worlds.

Silver in the London International

Bronze in the London No Gi

Never before have I felt so calm, but seriously nervous than when I went to compete at the Worlds on 1st November. My head was clear and I let my jiu jitsu do the work. It didn't let me down. All the clean eating, cardio, strength, drilling, sparring and muscle memory helped me win my fights and become the Blue belt feather weight Master 2 World champion.

With Silver medalist and friend from the UK, Kirsty

Bronze in the Absolute at the World Masters

World Champion!!

I am biased with Carlson Gracie Team, but I truly believe that we have a brilliant team of competitors, instructors, coaches and supporters who believe in the sport. We all work so hard and put so much time in to our training, that we get brilliant results. I can't thank all of them enough for helping me on my journey.

The journey didn't end there, on 28th November 2014, I was promoted to Purple belt by my coach Alain. Who would have thought that a 37 year old woman who had a goal, worked hard, never gave up on a dream, met some obstacles along the journey, but kept believing in herself and used the hard work to get there.

Receiving my purple belt

2014 Medals

Never give up! Set a goal and do it, you will not regret it.

Here's to making 2015 slightly easier haha


Now for the food, and I know that from a photo I posted, there has been a lot of interest in this.
I eat a lot of eggs and now when I eat them, I get a sickening pain in my stomach. So I needed to find something else to eat for breakfast that wasn't full of oats and carbs.
Quinoa is plain, so can be used in breakfast, lunch or dinner dishes. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and I take my time making it right, and it usually keeps me full until 1 or 2pm.
This Quinoa breakfast bake does the same.

Here is how I made it......

Ingredients:

170g Uncooked Quinoa
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon of nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon of ground cloves (I ground the cloves myself and used 2)
2 Apples
Handful of Raisins
Handful of Cranberries
Tablespoon of honey
2 Eggs
2 Cups of Almond milk
Handful of chopped almonds
Coconut oil


Method

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
Grease a square baking tin (8x8 is good) with the coconut oil.
Place the Quinoa, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a bowl and mix evenly.
Peel, core and dice the apples.
Melt the honey so that it's warm and very runny.
Beat the eggs and add the almond milk and the honey, then add this to the quinoa and spices. Mix thoroughly, then transfer to the baking tin.
Add the diced apples to the top of the mixture in the tin, then add the raisins and cranberries, and make sure they get enough of the wet ingredients to cover them.
Add the chopped almonds, then place in the oven to bake for 1 hour.

Let the bake cool, then keep in the fridge ready for breakfast in the morning.
You can eat it cold or warm it in the microwave. Either is lovely.

Enjoy!
Jolie x