Oh yes, a very yummy yet simple recipe. You only need three ingredients for this recipe - some chocolate, a bit of cocoa powder and sugar to your taste : ) Put it all in a bowl, mix and enjoy!

There's not much more I can say about this. Just remember to eat dairy in consideration!
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Bismillah...

I do this ALL the time. I just feel like I NEED a dose of chocolate o.O its crazy! But I have a few ways to eat less of it.

Although chocolate it yum, addictive and... always in your face -____-, it can be damaging to your body and health, especially chocolate that comes in the form of sweets/candy. By this I mean things like a really sugary bar is generally not better than say Dairy Milk in terms of what goes in your body and what it does e.g. the calories! Then something like dark chocolate or cocoa is better than Dairy Milk. (I hope your following xD).

I'm going to talk about how I control and cut down the amount of chocolate I eat. I've listed the points from easiest to hardest (sort of xD). Read them all through and put them in your own "easiest to hardest" list.

1. Don't tell yourself "I'll never eat chocolate again! *big smiles and a pat on the back*".
No, no, that is not the right thing to do. Chances are, you'll start yourself of chocolate and then sooner or later you'll end up eating loads which will effectively make no difference.

2. Analyse what times you find yourself really bingeing on chocolate. Try and take chocolate away from those situations. I find myself eating LOTS when I'm at home revising or doing homework.

3. Don't make any sudden changes. If you're reading this right now because you're constantly binging on chocolate or craving it all the time, do not, all of a sudden stop eating it. It will probably harm you just as much as is it when you are eating it because, making sudden changes in your diet will give you constipation.

4. Make up some healthy snacks - with chocolate. I saw this somewhere once where a lady drizzled some chocolate over some fruit and had it as a snack. So you're getting your five a day and chocolate together! I like to drizzle some dark chocolate over dates, its yum!

5. Drink more water! Drinking more water is good for many reasons as it is. And it will help you feel more full so you don't feel the need to have more chocolate.

6. This is a hard one, but try and buy less chocolate and it will probably help you with the point stated above. How you do this will be up to you. I find myself buying chocolate when I'm passing by Sainsbury's on my way home or something, so to avoid this, I buy chocolate raisins instead xD.

Next, make healthy switches! If you've got less chocolate in your cupboard, replace it with something! When I don't have a replacement, I end up eating more chocolate. Try out different stuff and find your favourite "chocolate alternative". Some of mine are: dates, cashews, almonds, grapes, strawberries. Subhanallah there is so much natural food on this earth >.<

7. Dark chocolate! You may think "Oh no, I dont like dark chocolate - skip this point!" - stop right there! I never used to like dark chocolate but now I do. When I deprived myself of milk chocolate, dark chocolate tasted fine to me and a 200g pack of Bourneville lasts a week between me and my sister xD.

Reason why dark is better than milk is because it contains less milk (duh) and has more cocoa content. Good quality (and expensive >.>) dark chocolate is better but I like to stick with Bourneville. Also, I find that since it has more cocoa content, I get satified with eating less... because effectively I get more cocoa!

 
Finally... Maintain all the changes! Even if you end up not keeping it up constantly, it doesn't mean you can't go back and try again. Don't give up on just because you tried it and it didn't work - try again! I mean, I just had a kitkat earlier because my box of dates finished! (inshaAllah I'll get another box soon!).

I hope this helps inshaAllah!
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Sayyed Al-Ansari (RA) narrates that the Prophet (SAAS) said 

“Eat the olive oil and massage it over your bodies since it is a blessed tree.” 
[ Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah]
Picture
Alhamdulillah for this wonderful food. It most certainly is a blessed tree as our Prophet (SAWS) told us since they can live up to hundreds of years and continously producing fruit.

The fruit and its oil has many properties benefitial to  internal health well as those for the skin care. I'm just going to outline a few of these which will inshaAllah help you in one way or another.





The fat! 
The fat of olives is more beneficial than you may think! About three quarters of the fat in olives comes is oleic acid, a type of monounsaturated fat (a good fat!). Now this talk of fat is going to bring us to the topic of cholesterol. There are two types of cholesterol, the good kind (HDL) which help prevent artery clogging and the bad kind (LDL) which sticks to artery walls like glue.

Obviously, you want to lower the level of LDL and raise the level on HDL that you take in. Well monounsaturated fats do just this and alhamdulillah are found in olives! : D

Other fats in olives include Omega-3, Omega-6 and more but in small quantities.

.::Now for stuff about olive oil::.

Antioxidants
Olive oil  is a great source of beta carotene (pro-vitamin A) and tocopherol (vitamin E). The antioxidants in olive oil help prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. The same vitamin E also helps prevent aging and metabolism.

How it can help skin
The antioxidants mentioned above (in olive oil) also help with renewing and repairing skin and it's seriously moisturing! But, don't think of it as putting oil on your skin, think of it as a moisturiser since it works just as great and is packed with plenty of nutrients : D. I've been using it as a moisturiser for many years now. Before that, I used to have itchy skin and no medicated soaps or creams were helping, but alhamdulillah since I started using olive oil, I don't have that problem anymore!

Exfoliator
If you google "How to make a body scrub", you'll find most of the results will involve olive oil. When it is teamed up with some brown sugar or sea salt along with some essential oils it makes a really effective scrub to wash off all dirt and dead skin. Not only is it cleansing but also benefitial to your skin : ).

Make up remover
One of my favourite uses of Olive oil! I love using it as a make up remover... for my eyes at least. I don't put make up on my face like cheeks etc so I can't say anything about that, but I can say something about using it on your eyes! I've been doing for quite a few years, however before this, I was using make up wipes which started to really irritate the skin around my eyes. The eye area is really sensitive so you need to real careful with what you use there. It's suited my skin, but if you're thinking of doing this, I suggest you try it out on a test area first.

NOTE: if you have acne, I don't recommend putting olive oil on your face. Sometimes it suits people, sometimes it doesn't. However, I will say, if you really want to try it, put it on a small test area first and see how that goes for a few days. If you get get breakouts, leave it inshaAllah.

Ear drops
If you get ear wax, definately try out the following to help get rid of it! Lay on your side with the ear with the ear wax facing up. Get someone to drop a couple of drops of olive oil in your ear. Keep still for about 5 - 10 mins while the oil soaks in. This will help the ear wax to come out much more easily. Finally use an ear bud to push out the ear wax. You migt be able to get a small bottle of olive oil with a dropper thing from the chemist or doctor. This little home remedy works really well alhamdulillah!

I really hope this short and concise description of olives, olive oil has helped you inshaAllah : )
This just stuff I've learnt and found benefitial to myself so I thought I'd share it xD

Here are some website which I found really easy to understand and informative, so if you want to learn more, here you go!

Olive Oil Source
Explore Crete - Olive oil
Amazing Olive oil
WHFoods
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Here's a crazy painting I did lately

Maybe something you can experiment doing?

I used oranges and other pot-pourri like stuff on the painting and I also made texture effects using that cement glue stuff (cant remember what its called >.<). Okay, so first of all, I made all the texture effects I wanted before I painting the background. Then after painting the background (which was totally random), I stuck on the oranges and the other random things. Then painting the flowers on top, and painted over the oranges as well. Finally I wrote on the following ayah:

    "O you who believe (in the Oneness of Allah - Islamic Monotheism)! Eat of the lawful things that We have provided you with, and be grateful to Allah, if it is  indeed He Whom you worship." (Surah Baqarah, 172)

I entered this painting in an art competition on Farah Visual Arts, so if you like it, follow the link and like the picture inshaAllah >.<

Click here to like the picture
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New mannequin! 12/28/2011
 
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Alhamdulillah, I got a new mannequin! Now I can make my dresses more easily now
: D

"She" even has a new name: Sasha >.>
My sister gave her this random name  (she does with everything).

Anyone looking for a mannequin?
If anyone is looking for one, Gumtree is the place to look! This is a size 10 (UK) mannequin and I got it for £12 O: It's totally worth it to look on Gumtree or eBay than going and buying a new one. "Sasha" looks like she's been used quite a bit because there are dents in the polystyrene foams but the cover is removable so I just took it off, popped it in the washing machine and now she looks as good as new!

You have to keep looking all the time because one will pop up randomly. They're light so don't worry about having to go on the bus or anything.
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Assalam Alaikum!

So I made these dried orange decorations by cutting 1/4 inch slices of an orange.
I'm just putting up the video here with a written description

- Cut 1/4 inch slices
- Dry the slices by soaking up the moisture using a towel - do not rub though!
- Heat the slices - Now this is my way: Put it on the grill/in the oven for about 20 mins. Keep watching it though just incase it starts going brown. Take it off, leave it on the heater for a few days. Our heater is on right now because it's the middle of December and it's cold here in England!
-If your heater is not on, use the oven method which is leaving the slices in the oven for about an hr n half at about 180°C. Keep an eye on the orange slices though!

You can use these as decorations, potpourri, or use them in homemade soap bars. If you want to use them as decorations,  put them near a window because they look great in sunlight! For potpourri, put a few of these together, maybe slice a few up
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Assalam Alaikum!
Recently, I made a recipe video for wheatflour and oats
cookies! They're a healthy alternative and quite easy to make really. By the
way, wheat flour is atta to all you asians so you already got nearly all the
ingredients at home. xD

I wanted to post a blog
about it because I thought it would be easier to list all the ingredients here
if you don't want to go through the whole video, so here they are
below!

Dry ingredients:
225
grams oats
150 grams wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Add whichever dry fruits you like and however much you want, a handful should be an

Wet
ingredients:
3 tablespoons of mollasses (I used Golden
Syrup)
3 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
extract
3 tablespoons milk

Get making and get experimenting. By that I mean you don't have to strictly stick to this recipe.
You can use alternative mollasses by substituting Golden Syrup for something like data mollasses which can be found at asian food stores (at least here in the UK that's where you're likely yo find them).

Because this recipe is not that sweet, you can add more sugar by adding a couple of spoonfuls of white sugar to the dry ingredients to sweeten it up!

By adding milk, the cookies become more soft and have a slight cake like texture to them. To make them less soft, only put it about 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk.

The reason why wheatflour is used here is because it retains the natural fibre and other nutrients of wheat which is taken out when you get plain white flour.

And here's the video recipe below!
3 Comments
 
Henna videos! 12/21/2011
 
Assalam Alaikum!
I havn't posted anything lately, but I just wanted to collectively most my lastest henna videos here since I've been making loads nowadays. This first one I've posted below, is a nice simple design, one that beginners can try out : )
Jazakallah khair to Owais for the tripod!

I still have a bridal henna video to upload, so look out for that!
1 Comment
 
 
This post is just to give add more information to help understand about tea tree oil and its benefits (in addition to the video)

 Acne and spots are common problems amongst us - especially teenagers. A lack of knowledge will let you be reeled in by fancy packaging and advertisements claiming to being "the top cure" for spots and acne.

However there is no need to spend a fortune on trying lots of different products and all of them eventually not being the one for you. Look no further than the essential oils section and find yourself and little bottle of tea tree oil! Tea tree oil is a brilliant natural natural remedy for skin ailments such as acne and spots.

Acne is caused by pores being plugged in the skin by an oily substance. To oppose this effect, tea tree oil acts as an astrigent (a substance which contracts tissue) and will kill off the bacteria in the pore as it dries up the skin.

This also leads to the fact that tea tree oil helps remove oil from the skin and dries it up, which id definately a positive for those with oily skin. However if you have dry skin, tea tree oil will dry it up even more, so be careful when using it - maybe you will want to only apply it to your spots?

Below I've included a couple of websites with some more information:

http://www.homeremediesweb.com/tea_tree_oil_health_benefits.php
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/teatreeoil/a/teatreeoilacne.htm

And if you haven't already watched the tea tree oil video:  (I will now do an update video soon)
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My new dress 10/12/2011
 
This is just a bit more about my dress:

I wanted to make my own dress because I don't find stuff like this in shops so I've started doing this. I really like the whole gothic/lolita/victorian look so that's where this dress came from. 

This dress was inspired by a few items I saw on Fanplusfreind.

So I've added a high neck collar to it with ruffles, which was inspired by this blouse

The sleeves are elasticated at the elbow and bell shapes sleeved with ruffles. I've kept the sleeves quite loose to make it more halal xD and the dress itself - I didn't make the waist fitted. The skirt starts above the hips so flows outwards from there. The dress isn't ankle length but it comes down about halfway between the knees and ankles.

I want to make another dress now and this blouse is rather inspiring... oooh and I like this dress A LOT!
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