Hi and welcome to Hebs Sweetly. I’m a Londoner and mother of two beautiful boys, they honestly have me running around the kitchen 24+7. I absolutely love sweet treats and believe there is nothing wrong with having sweetness in your life. I am also a strong believer of moderation. Moderation is EVERYTHING guys.
If you were to sum me up as a dessert or a sweet treat, I’d be a cinnamon bun. *Major drooling going on*. I would seriously eat one every day if I could.
To tell you a few key things about me:
1. I’m a perfectionist. To the point I get scared to do things unless it’s exactly like I want. It doesn’t work out well sometimes.
2. I’m a homebody. I would stay home lounging on the sofa rather than going out any day. I just love snuggling up with a sweet treat and a lovely cuppa tea!
3. I love anything under the sweet/desert category. My sweet tooth is indescribable.
On a serious note before Hebs Sweetly was created I was THE biggest junk food addict. I would literally eat anything. I never cared about how it may affect my body. I think it’s because of the fact I’ve always had a fast metabolism this made me think I was invincible.
But then my father suddenly passed away of a heart attack a few years ago and my whole world changed. My dad was perfectly fine before this attack and had no symptoms leading to it. We found out he died of coronary heart disease.
My first born son was only a month old when this happened, I just knew I had to change my eating habits if I wanted to live a healthier life. So I started by not eating as much red meat which was HUGE for me as we used to eat it almost every day. Loads of it!
Other than red meat, another change I made was sugar. I used to consume it like there any no limitations on what the body should intake. Like I said I was skinny, so I thought I was getting away with it. But I was always tired, weak, and lethargic and was always low on almost every vitamin possible.
I started to look at what I was eating and the fact I was eating the SAME stuff everyday – processed foods, sugary ‘fruit’ drinks, and cake cake cake! I legit ate shop bought cake every day, my evening cake and tea was like a ritual.
One day I looked at the back of my favourite cake and saw a PARAGRAPH of ingredients I couldn’t pronounce let alone have any idea about what they were. I thought, if I didn’t know what was going into my body why consume it? So this is when I decided to make my own treats to fill my sweet void as I knew I couldn’t go without cakes and sweet stuff altogether.
I usually bake with wholesome and natural ingredients such as:
· Whole Wheat flour and Oats, Alternative Gluten free flours like buckwheat, almond flour (Although I do use white flour sometimes for things such as roll based recipes).
· Natural sweeteners like dates, coconut sugar, pure maple syrup and honey.
· Coconut/olive oils and only real grass fed butter. None of that margarine stuff.
My two boy’s loveee baking with me and through baking I try to introduce them to new flavours and textures. I used to buy supermarket treats and I would get the ‘natural based’ bars and treats, but this was getting expensive.
Financially, I really believe baking treats at home has reduced our shopping bill. Ingredients can go a long way and make dozens and dozens of different treats! Not buying usual soft drinks and sugary snacks has also bought our weekly bills down too. WIN WIN for all!
It took a lot of experimenting and epic fails to learn how to bake. Don’t get me wrong I’m still having epic fails but this is a new journey for me and I’m enjoying every minute of it!!! I am not a professional by any means, I am merely a home baker that is learning new things every day. So please join me as I document and share with you all my favourite recipes.
*Update*
My youngest son is now on a gluten free and dairy free diet due to a few intolerances so on this blog I will be adding all our favourite DF/GF treats, lunches and dinners. Guiding on you how you can still have fun delicious meals for kids and adults while on this diet. It is hard but it is not impossible, it just takes planning and a little effort!