Chocolate Blueberry Pancakes (made with unrefined brown rice flour).

I think I may develop a pancake addiction.... Addiction sounds negative and these pancakes are far from bad so lets call it a healthy pancake habit :) <3

Looking at it you would think that it was loaded with sugar and super-sweet but you will be surprised with how little natural sweetening these pancakes have. The pancakes themselves are sweetened with a couple of dates and the easy to make choc sauce is sweetened with 1 teaspoon of honey.

Wow, was I blown away by this creation. Was exactly what I needed this morning as it was too cold for a smoothie. It was like eating a creamy spongecake with a hint of chocolate sweetness but instead of telling myself "oh I could have done without that" i thought "oooooooooooooh I will definitely be having more of these for breakfast and dam I want to make these for my friends and fam!"

Brown rice flour pancakes are full of nutritional goodness and tastes amazing - can't go wrong ;)

Recipe:
(serves 1-2)

Pancakes:
1 egg
1/2 cup unsweetened yoghurt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 brown rice flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 finely chopped dates
pinch salt
coconut oil (for frying)

Chocolate sauce:
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon honey


Extra berries and yoghurt for topping

1) gently beat egg - add yoghurt, vanilla essence and apple cider vinegar and mix
2) add to wet ingredients rice flour, cocoa powder, dates and salt and mix
3) stir in blueberries
4) heat up coconut oil in frying pan on medium heat and add a heaped teaspoon of batter in to form pancake (I make 3 in a pan to allow room for flipping)
5) flip when one side is cooked
6) when cooked, stack on plate and cook the other pancakes (this recipe makes 5 pancakes)
7) stack the rest of the pancakes and top it off with yoghurt, blueberries and drizzle with chocolate sauce (chocolate sauce made by mixing the 4 ingredients).

Blueberry Brown Rice Flour Pancakes

These pancakes are just another one of my new kitchen affairs - key is quick and easy! I use brown rice flour instead of wheat flour.

Refined flours/grains are stripped of their nutrients, however brown rice flour, in it's whole grain form gives us protein, fibre and the very vital B vitamins.

Who loves delicious fluffy pancakes?! I do!

Recipe:
(serves 1-2)

1 egg
1/2 cup unsweetened yoghurt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 brown rice flour
1/4 cup shredded coconuts
pinch salt
coconut oil (for frying)

1) gently beat egg - add yoghurt and vanilla essence, and mix
2) add to wet ingredients rice flour, coconut and salt and mix
3) stir in blueberries
4) heat up coconut oil in frying pan and add a heaped teaspoon of batter in to form pancake (I make 3 in a pan to allow room for flipping)
5) flip when one side is cooked
6) when cooked, stack on plate and cook the other pancakes (this recipe makes 5 pancakes)
7) stack the rest of the pancakes and top it off with blueberries, shredded coconut, drizzle with honey (I didn't want mine to be too sweet so I just used 1 heaped teaspoon) and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Enjoy! These truly are the fluffiest pancakes I have ever made :)

Double Chocolate Slice (made with chick peas :O)

This slice is flourless/grainless/gluten-free and gets its texture from the chick peas! This recipe is fantastic - not only because it's grainless and free of refined sugars but because it is extremely quick to make.

It literally takes 2 minutes to prepare for the oven (once the chick peas are cooked that is; unless you use canned chick peas). I've actually made this one twice in the last 2 weeks because of it's quick and easiness to guilt-less sweetness.

Recipe:
(makes 6 slices)

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked chick peas
1/2 cup peanut or almond butter
2 tablespoons of honey (depending on how sweet your tooth is)
1/4 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/3 cup stevia sweetened chocolate bits - for mixing in with batter (crushed chocolate bar)
2 teaspoons stevia sweetened chocolate bits - for topping off the slices

1) Preheat oven to 180C
2) Melt chocolate for the batter
3) Process everything in the food processor to form a batter (including melted chocolate)
4) Grease baking tray with coconut oil
5) Form a rectangular/square "slice" with batter (should be about 1cm thick) - length and with in accordance to the size you want to cut it
6) sprinkle with chocolate bits
7) Bake i oven for about 20 mins or until done
8) Cut into slices one let cooled

ALL DONE! :D

Seedy Red Smoothie

This smoothie is a combo of strawberries and pomegranate. Keeping with the red theme (in to avoid an impolite brown colour) I added some highly nutritious goji berries also. Pomegranate's, like goji berries are known for it's anti-aging properties. You will find that some natural skin-care products are formulated with pomegranate.

This smoothie is lower in sugar than the other smoothies that I have been making this week, which were made with fruits of a higher sugar content, such as apple, pears and bananas. A punnet of strawberry has less sugar than any of those fruits and pomegranates also has relatively less sugar than most other fruits....
I also added ginger, bit of spice that's energizing and is detoxifying.

Strawberries and pomegranates are more expensive than other fruits but everyone should treat themselves from time to time. Plus this smoothie will be comparable to prices of smoothies from smoothie stands and cafes, which don't taste as good anyway This super skin to soul smoothie is worth it

Ingredients
(serves 2)
Punnet of strawberries
1 pomegranate
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon shredded almond
2 tablespoon LSC (usually I use LSA but since I'm using almonds already in this smoothie I used LSC to get some chia seeds in the smoothie too :))
1 tablespoon goji berry (optional)
1 date (or tablespoon raisins)
1 teaspoon crushed ginger
unsweetened yoghurt (optional for topping off)

-blend all ingredients together
(if you want to pretty the smoothie up like I have then leave one 1 strawberry and 1 pocket of pomegranate seeds)
-pour into cup/jar
-top off with yoghurt and decorate with strawberry and pomegranate seeds

Banana Carrot Muffins

 











Breakfast Today = Banana Carrot Muffins

What do you do when your up before the rest of the world? This morning I made banana carrot muffins for breakfast.

Was a nice change from the smoothies that I've been having and if your going to have a fruit muffin or fruity anything, the best time of the day is in the morning. Also, its important to have a lasting feeling of satisfaction by balancing those sugar levels- the eggs and walnuts nuts in this recipe can help with that.

They are yummy little grain-less muffins but were a bit too sweet for me actually. Probably could have done with just the bananas and dates for sweetening and minus the extra honey - less sugar! even better!!!

Recipe:(12 muffins)

 2 Small bananas
 2 eggs
 1/4 cup coconut oil
 1/4 cup coconut flour
 1/2 finely crushed walnuts
 1/2 carrot (grated with the smaller hole)
 6 dates cut int tiny pieces (or 1/4 raisins)

 1 teaspoon baking powder
 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

 1) preheat oven to 180 C
 2) beat eggs and melt oil
 3) mash bananas and mix in beaten eggs and melted coconut oil
 4) add in coconut flour, baking powder and apple cider vinegar and blend well
 5) fold in walnuts, dates and carrots
 6) pour into muffin trays and cook for ten minutes or until done
 7) top it off with unsweetened yoghurt with banana slices and/or walnuts :)

Seaweed Prawn Salad

I have a feeling I will be eating a lot of this wakame salad from now on. This wakame seaweed had been sitting in the freezer for a couple of weeks now. Not sure why, because as with any other salads its easy to prepare. And it tastes just like the ones that I've had at Japanese restaurants - full of flavor. Its made with basic Asian condiments.

Compared to other salads, this one is very filling as wakame is high in protein and fibre. Wakame has great amounts of iron, calcium, magnesium and iodine which are minerals that are commonly lacking in people's diets.

Think its going to be a wakame, avocado cucumber salad tomorrow and am looking forward to it :)
Recipe:
(serves 2)

Ingredients:
Salad:
400g wakame
1 large carrot grated
1/2 capsicum sliced
2 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon finely grated ginger (optional)
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)

Prawn:
300g prawn meat
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 garlic glove minced

Method:
Marinate prawn with the soy sauce, cayenne and garlic
Soak seaweed in warm water
Pan fry or oven bake the prawns (with cocobut oil)
Drain and squeeze the water from wakame
Add condiments to wakame and mix
Add carrots and capsicum and mix
Add the prawns to the salad mix (may want to let prawns cool first)
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and a squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

Strawberry Black Forest Cake

Made this last night for a friend's birthday. This ones as good as any other mud cake, only without the refined sugars and flour. The extra sugar and flour is replaced with sweet potato (same as with the brownies I made last week).

The cake is grain-less and made with less sugar than the usual chocolate mud cakes. Perfect cake for the birthday boy who wants to stay lean. Yummy but healthier - fingers cross that he agrees!

This cake is also suitable for gluten-free :)

Recipe:Ingredients:
(double if you want a double layer cake)

    Cake:

    1 medium white sweet potato, peeled and grated (using the larger holes of the grater)

    2 whole eggs
    3/4-1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (depends how dark/rich/bitter you want the cake)
    2 tbsp coconut flour
    1/2 cup of melted raw honey   
    1/2 cup of melted coconut oil
    1 heaped tbsp of gluten free baking powder
    ½ tbsp of baking soda
    2 tsp vanilla extract
    125g stevia sweetened dark chocolate (or 70% Whittakers dark chocolate)
    3 tbsp unsweetened almond milk

    Garnish:
    Punnet of strawberries
    125g stevia sweetened dark chocolate (or 70% Whittakers dark chocolate)
    1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk  
     Extra chocolate if you want chunks of chocolate on top
   

Instructions:
   Cake:

   -          Preheat oven to 185 °C

-          Combine grated sweet potato, eggs, vanilla extract, honey and coconut oil until well mixed. Stir in baking powder and baking soda.  Mix in cocoa powder and coconut flour.

-     Add broken chunks of the chocolate and almond milk into the batter and mix.

-          Pour the mixture into a cake tray greased with coconut oil.

-          Cook for 25 minutes or until cooked.

-          Leave to cool and remove from tin

  
   Garnish:
   -          Melt the dark chocolate with the almond milk and stir frequently until cool and thick enough to
          not run down the side of cake
   -      Spread chocolate on cake and decorate with strawberries as you wish
   -      For a double layer cake add sliced strawberries onto the bottom layer, carefully place second
           second cake layer on top, add melted chocolate and layer with strawberries - I garnished it 
           with chucks of chocolate as you can never have enough chocolate right :D

My Smoothie Super-foods

The weather has warmed up, so I have turned up my smoothie making. Smoothie making to me means easy, tasty, nutrient-rich freshness in a cup. It’s a way for me to add super foods, such as berries, nuts, seeds, powders, oils, herbs, spices and probiotics into my diet. These super foods are “functional foods” as their natural properties function in your body that is beneficial to your health.
I will list the different super food ingredients that I use, it’s health benefits and the type of smoothies I use them in. I’m hoping it’ll help you create some nutritiously delicious smoothies.

Berries – high in antioxidants and lower in sugar than other fruits.
         - Dried Goji Berries  - one of the very few plant based complete protein sources
                                             - contain superoxide dismutase which are enzymes that prevent  
                                                 harmful cholesterol                                               
                                             - adds a slight sweetness and chewiness surprise in the smoothie

Nuts and Seeds – a source of protein, fibre, essential fats and various vitamins and minerals
                             - allows smoothies to keep you fuller for longer
                             - adds texture and thickens the smoothie
                             - any nuts and seeds can be used – I’ve been using almonds and LSA
         - LSA -  (grounded linseed, sunflower seed and almonds)
         - Chia seeds - approximately 20% protein, 34% oil (great source of omega 3) and 25%    
                                  fibre
                             - minerals required for bone health such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and
                                    boron
                              - helps bowel movement and colon health
                              - forms a fun jelly like texture in smoothie
      
Carob powder – source of fibre and natural pectin which cleanses the colon and clears cholesterol
                           - high in many minerals and nutrients that support bone and nervous health
                          - I would use these in “chocolate” smoothies as they are a healthier chocolate                            
                            substitute
                          - because it is brown I would be careful of which smoothies you put them into or how  
                            you use them in a smoothie (to ensure its visually appealing) – for the chocolate,
                            cinnamon banana cake I mixed it in with the chocolate layer.

Green powders (spirulina, wheat grass, barley grass)
- Spirulina – is about 65% protein
                    - contains absorbable iron
                    -  antioxidant-rich
- Wheat grass – contains digestive enzymes that improves digestion
                          - contains chlorophyll which helps with cleansing and detoxifying the body
- Barley grass – source of vitamin B12 and vitamin C
                          - very alkalizing
- I would be careful with which smoothies I put these into due it its strong taste and colour
- I would use them in green smoothies or if it’s a super sweet smoothie that over-rides the taste like banana and apple or one where you add honey or raisins.

Flax-seed oil – source of omega 3
                       - gives the smoothie a smoother texture
                       - no negative effect on taste of smoothie

Avocado – source of essential fats
                 - provides a creamy texture
                 - no negative effect on taste of smoothie

Herbs and Spices - Mint – is rich in vitamins A and C
                                             - is a natural diuretic that reduces fluid retention
                                            – great to add to summer smoothies for cooling affect
                                            - adds a minty flavour
                                - Cinnamon – balances sugar levels and boots metabolism
                                   – adds a bit of spice to the smoothie and could work well with any fruit
                                   smoothies
                                - Ginger - warming, energizing, improves blood circulation, detoxifying and   
                                   antioxidant rich
                                               - spices up and picks up the smoothie

Probiotics – balances out gut bacteria to help with digestion and boost immunity
                   – can add to any smoothies
                   - Powder or unsweetened yoghurt (adds a creamy smooth texture to the smooth)
                                      

Falafel Burger

Ingredients

Falafel:
2 cups cooked chick peas
1 onion
2 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
juice of one lemon
2 tablespoon melted coconut oil

Avocado
Rocket leaves
Unsweetened yoghurt

Direction

-          Process all falafel ingredients together in a in a food processor until well mixed

-          Separate mixture into 6

-          Roll into balls and flatten to from patties

-          Fry in a pan with coconut oil until firm

-          Layer the burger with avocado, rocket leaves and unsweetened yoghurt

Grain-less Brownies (made with sweet potato!)

 

Grain-free, gluten-free and refined sugar-free

This recipe is amazing, it is an angel in disguise. The sweet potato is a great flour replacement for that soft moist texture and its natural sweetness means less sugar is required. And you know its good when your brother has 3 pieces in one go!

Ingredients:

    1 medium white sweet potato, peeled and grated (using the larger holes of the grater)

    2 whole eggs
    1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder     
    2 tbsp coconut flour
    1/2 cup of melted raw honey   
    1/2 cup of melted coconut oil
    1 heaped tbsp of gluten free baking powder
    ½ tbsp of baking soda
    2 tsp vanilla extract
   
    200g stevia-sweetened chocolate
    1/2 cup almond milk

Instructions:

   -          Preheat oven to 185 °C

-          Combine grated sweet potato, eggs, vanilla extract, honey and coconut oil until well mixed. Stir in baking powder and baking soda.  Mix in cocoa powder and coconut flour.

-          Pour the mixture into a baking tray greased with coconut oil. It should be about 1 inch thick.

-          Cook for 25 minutes or until cooked.

-          Leave for 5-10 minutes before removing the brownie cake from the tin.

-          Cut into squares once cooled

-          Leave the brownie cake to cool down before cutting.

-          Melt 200 grams of stevia- sweetened chocolate with almond milk and layer on brownies (the chocolates I used had nuts in them)

Enjoy the slices of heaven :)