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spring scents for home + stay home recipes

Home fragrance treats for Spring and stay at home recipes from Samantha Hadadi –

Stay Home – Stay Safe:

We’re all seeing a lot more of our home environments at the moment and while times are undoubtedly tough, we wanted to offer some tailormade treat ideas, including Spring home fragrances.

Fresh Home scents

Decorating your home with Spring fragrance is one way of welcoming sunshine where possible and lighting a scented candle brings simple luxury aplenty. Exceptionally proud that two of our products recently won much-coveted Beauty Shortlist Awards, it seems an apt moment for celebrating their success. Spring forward, Alteeneh Fig Candle and Ambra Amber Reed Diffuser.

Home Fragrance: Ancienne Ambiance Spring Home Fragrances - Beauty Shortlist Award Winners 2020

Alteeneh Fig is a sensual home fragrance, offering deluxe distraction. With a burn time of 60-65 hours, enjoy the uplifting fragrance and mood boosting sweet fig notes. Whether lighting the candle to upgrade your home working habits or for an evening of Netflix, there’s something undeniably grounding about lighting a candle.

ancienne ambiance london - alteeneh fig scented candle - beauty shortlist awards winner - wellbeing candle winner

If you love a diffuser, our Ambra Amber home fragrance delivers a dry, peppery scent which is comforting and warming. Softly aromatic, its creation was inspired by the Ambergris resin most beloved by Roman Emperors. While grabbing a cultural infusion outdoors is challenging right now, you can absorb a little of the historical significance we embrace with this diffuser.

Home Fragrance - ambra amber reed diffuser - beauty shortlist award winner - wellbeing awards

With Spring home scents covered, as we know many households are now tackling home education for the foreseeable future too. We spoke with mum of four and Nourished Naturally founder Samantha Hadadi. A freelance health and food journalist with a passion for fabulous plant-based recipes, Sam is a firm Ancienne Ambiance favourite and you’ll love exploring her beautiful blog and Instagram posts.

Asking Sam how the current juggle is going, she shares “While home schooling is tough for many of us (I quickly learned I would make a terrible teacher!), it has been nice to teach my boys something different. As well as gardening (we’ve been making the most of the sunshine by planting seeds), I’ve been teaching them how to cook.”

Nourished Naturally founder, Samantha Hadadi

Read on for Sam’s top at-home foodie tips, and her lip-smackingly tasty store cupboard recipe too…

– One of our favourite, easy, kid-friendly meals is flatbread pizzas – I have a four-year-old, and he loves getting his hands messy with this! It also uses only a few ingredient (just flour, water and oil), and you can top with whatever you have lying around.

– Wherever you can, try to repurpose your leftovers – this is something I’m working hard on getting better at! Leftover tomatoes make the best pasta sauces, you can use leftover potato to make crispy smashed potatoes or potato cakes – you can use leftover sweet potato to make my brownies! – while you can even find recipes which use leftover porridge to create cake! We also like to chop up over-ripe bananas and freeze them to make “banana ice cream”. I also discovered that you can chop and freeze any leftover fresh herbs in ice cube trays.

– It’s more important than ever to keep yourselves nourished and hydrated. While it may be harder to source fresh foods, try to make sure you’re eating plenty of protein – chickpeas, lentils, tofu and beans are great longer life sources of protein – complex carbs (think brown rice, sweet potatoes) and healthy fats such as nuts and seeds, if you can. Some of my staples right now include oats, chickpeas, black beans, lentils, chopped tomatoes, coconut milk and coconut cream, herbs and spices, frozen spinach, seeds and tofu.

And now onto those aforementioned Sweet Potato Brownies. YUM.

Grain-Free Sweet Potato Brownies by Samantha Hadadi, Nourished Naturally

spring scents for home + stay home recipes

Ingredients

Creates one rectangular tin of brownies

  • 2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed (You want one cup of cooked sweet potato)
  •  100g block vegan butter (I use Naturli)
  • 170g dark chocolate, finely chopped
  • 8 tbsp aquafaba (chickpea brine)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup coconut sugar or light brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 6 tbsp plant-based milk (I used Mighty Pea)
  • For the dry ingredients –
  • 1/2 cup ground almonds
  • 2 tbsp cacao or chocolate plant-based protein (I used Form Nutrition)
  • 1 tbsp coconut flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Large pinch salt
  • 100g dark chocolate chips
  • Two handfuls hazelnuts, chopped

 

Method 

  • Preheat your oven to 200C, then line a rectangular brownie tin and set aside. Place the sweet potatoes onto a baking tray and bake until tender (around 40 minutes). Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely. Turn the oven down to 180C.
  • Once your sweet potatoes are cool, heat the butter until melted. Add the chopped dark chocolate, allow to sit for a few minutes, then stir until smooth and completely melted (if it won’t melt, then gently apply a touch more heat until it does!).
  • Whisk in the aquafaba, vanilla and sugar.
  • Place the chocolate mixture into the blender, along with one cup of cooked sweet potato, and the plant milk. Blend until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
  • In a separate bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Fold in the wet chocolate mixture, then stir in the dark chocolate chips. Pour into your prepared baking tin.
  • Place in the oven at 180C to bake for 24 minutes, or until firm on top but still slightly wobbly. Allow to cool, then transfer to the fridge overnight. Cut into slices and enjoy!

Explore more of Samantha’s delicious recipes at thenourishednaturally.co.uk >>>

 

 

 
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Images: Samantha Hadadi, Nourished Naturally

Editor of The Ambiance Blog, Helen Wilson-Beevers is a beauty, health and lifestyle writer.

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