The worry is getting to me…

So it’s that time of year again – exams are looming. Several reports are due. Add a couple of essays on top of that, along with some important TaeKwonDo competitions fast approaching… Chaos! Everything is up in the air. The more rational side of me is screaming (it’s the only way that little voice tends to get my attention when I’m in hyper-drive) that all is needed is just take a few deep breaths –  everything will be fine. Calm down, the work will get done . It always does… but the more rebellious part of me ain’t interested! It’s time to embrace the madness! What better way to do that than by grabbing some nuts?

What did you think I meant?!

This is the part where I normally detail some nice, exact measurements. NOT TODAY! Today, you’re to just grab a pot of honey, a sprinkling of salt and some spices. I don’t know about you but when I envision madness, I also get hit with a metaphorical heatwave – that’s a theme I’m happy to roll with. Bump the oven up to 200°C. Now turn your sleep-deprived, crazied eyes to your collection of spices. The ones I went for were:

• Cayenne Pepper
• Hot Chilli
• Paprika
• Ground ginger

Spill around 300g cashews into a non-stick tray of sorts. Slop about a table spoon and a half of honey on these bad boys.

They do say you catch more flies with honey, than vinegar… Something I constantly need to remind myself of when the Stress Monster is lurking.

Now for the fun part: Lash a bunch of chilli, paprika, cayenne pepper onto the sticky, sweet goodness you have before you; then the ground ginger and salt – personally choose to be a bit sparing with these guys. Mix them all up and chuck them into the oven. Leave them in there for about 15 mins.

I can feel myself relaxing already

During this time, you may choose to:

• Dance around the oven with all the vigor of some “the end is nigh” preacher.
• Sit in dead silence, staring the dog out of it until the timer’s high pitched beep startles one of you.
• Do something true insane and actually set about completing some of your workload!

Before any of this, however, the one sensible and prescribed thing you are to do in this whole affair is to tear off a piece of parchment paper large enough to scatter the finished goods onto. Have this laid out before you pull the nuts out of the oven and heap them onto it immediately. Should you forget this vital step, you’ll find yourself having a “Here’s Johnny” moment as you end up hacking away at the sugar-solidified nuts encrusted into your base. You’ll end up with something that looks more-or-less like this:

Bringing new meaning to the phrase “melt the stress away”

So you don’t add feelings of guilt and bloatedness to your already riddled conscience, try save some for later

(I said “try”)