Tag Archives: home made snacks

Munchie buster! Raw Cocoa-orange balls!

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These are a perfect snack if you want something chocolatey but a little more filling. You can use orange zest or natural orange flavouring – whichever (or both if you like it really orangey). You can also leave out the orange altogether and just have them plain chocolate. They are around 158 cals per ball, but it very much depends how large you make them of course! This recipe makes approx ten.

IMG_7965

You will need:

175g cashews

200g Medjool dates, pitted

20g rasins

30g cocoa powder (plus a little extra for rolling)

Zest of 1 orange or natural orange flavouring 

Pop the cashews food processor and pulse until they’re in small pieces.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the processor and pulse until you have a sticky dough. 

It’s very sticky at the moment so scoop it out into some cling film and pop in the freezer for around 20 mins. 

Once it’s a little firmer, remove and roll into small balls. Roll the balls in cocoa powder and then store in the fridge in an airtight container. 

Enjoy 🙂

xx

Almond protein bars

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I’m always on the look out for high protein snacks for big work out days. I came across this recipe from Lifestyle inc and thought I’d give it a go. I subsituted the eggs out of the recipe and added some dried fruit as I like the tartness it adds. The original recipe calls them muffins but they’re pretty solid and dense so I think they’re more of a bar, though they’re not bar-shaped so I guess they’re more like protein lumps ?! 🙂

170g Almond Butter

1 cup Flaked Almonds

1 cup Coconut milk / Almond milk

2 cups Dessicated Coconut

1/4 tsp Vanilla extract

2 tsp Agave Nectar or Sweet Freedom

3/4 cup Soya milk with 3 tbsp Lemon Juice/ Cider Vinegar added (to curdle it)

6 tbsp Cornflour or Arrowroot powder

1/4 cup Unrefined Raw Sugar / Coconut Palm Sugar

A handful of Dried apricots, blueberries etc

Preheat oven to 190 C. Line a muffin tin with muffin cases or grease a set of small loaf tins (this should make 9 – 12 depending muffins on the size). Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Have a little taste and adjust the sweetner if you need it sweeter. Then pour into the tin and bake for at least 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Enjoy! 🙂

PANCAKES!!!

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Ah pancake day is here again! I was going to try to resist jumping on the pancake posting bandwagon but I just can’t help myself!

There are loads of awesome recipes out there but this year I’m going for this gluten-free  recipe from Pure Form Fitness. I’ve used homemade puree’d apple as the egg subsitute and they’re light, fluffy and frankly delicious! I’m having my first batch (of many!) with fruit and maple syrup! Then I’m cracking out the lemon and sugar I think…..

Another fab recipe for vegan pancakes is from the Toxic Vegan. I tried these yesterday and they’re yummy!

And this popped in to my inbox this morning  from Paperbagblog which is FULL of lovely sounding recipes so give them a go!

Hope you all have a lovely pancake day! I’m off to troff some more .. nom nom nom 🙂

Pear and Almond Frangipane – Gluten and Dairy Free

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I absolutely LOVE almond and whenever there’s a frangipane or almond tart on offer somewhere you can bet that that will be the cake I choose. So when I came across this awesome recipe I just had to try it! It’s from Isa’s website but I’ve modified it to make it gluten free and substituted the margarine for coconut oil which is much healthier and less processed. My tasters almost didn’t get any of this as I pretty much inhaled it as soon as it came out the oven!

For the pastry:

2/3 cup Ground Almonds
1 cup Rice Flour / Gluten Free Plain Flour Mix / Spelt Flour (for low gluten not gluten free option)
2 tbsp Coconut Palm Sugar / Unrefined Raw Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt (ideally Himalayan Rock Salt)
6 tbsp Olive Oil
3 – 4 tbsp Cold Almond Milk

For the frangipane:

6 tbsp Coconut Oil (don’t melt it)
2/3 cup Coconut Palm Sugar / Unrefined Raw Sugar
1 and 1/4 cup Ground Almonds
2 tbsp Cornflour
pinch salt
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
2/3 cup Almond Milk
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
4 Pears (I used conference pears as it’s what I had in my fridge!), peeled, cored and sliced

Preheat the oven to 175 C.

Start with the pastry. Put the ground almonds into a food processor with the flour and salt and pulse to combine. Keep pulsing and add in the olive oil gradually. Add 2 tablespoons of almond milk and keep pulsing. The mixture should hold together when pressed, if it doesn’t then add some more almond milk, pulsing all the time, until it does. At this point have a taste. If you want a sweeter pastry then add some more sugar until you get the desired flavour. Press it into a pie dish. This amount should do a 9 inch pan. Using a fork prick the base of the pastry shell and place in the oven for 15 minutes to blind bake.

Now for the frangipane (my favourite bit! 🙂 ).Put the coconut oil, sugar, ground almonds, cornflour, cinnamon and salt in a food processor and pulse until well combined and all crumbly. Slowly add the almond milk, vanilla extract and almond extract whilst still pulsing the food processor until it forms a thick batter. Pour the batter into the pre-baked pastry shell. Peel and core the pears, slice them in half and then into thin slices (about a 1/4 of an inch thick). Lay the pear slices in the batter – overlap them and push them in so about 2/3 is under the batter and the top is sticking out (so you need to put them in at an angle if that makes sense!). Bake the tart for 40 – 45  minutes or until the top is golden brown, then move the tart onto a cooling rack and cool for 20 minutes.

warning - this is seriously addictive

Because I used coconut oil, not margarine, for the frangipane this came out as rather like a treacle tart in texture. Now I quite liked that but if you want something a little more cakey then you might want to use vegetable shortening instead. I’ve not tried it yet (though I will be!) but a more solid fat should help with that. Personally I love the flavour the coconut oil gives and I can cope with a nice sticky tart! 🙂

Dairy Free Chocolate Pudding Truffles

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As indulgent as any bought truffle and full of goodness!

This is another of my recipes featured on Pure Form Fitness Kitchen. It’s a modified version of a fab chocolate pudding from there and it works really well for making individual little truffles. I’m a chocolate monster so I need my chocolates and these totally hit the spot. You can get creative and add whatever flavours and fillings you like 🙂

 

1oz Cocoa butter

3 tbsp Cocoa powder

2 tbsp Pure protein powder (vanilla)

½ Avocado

Agave syrup to taste

A few drops of Valencian orange extract, peppermint extract or cinnamon, cayenne pepper etc

Chopped roasted hazelnuts, dried cherries, dried apricots, dessicate coconut, roasted almonds, etc (anything you want to put in them!)

Melt the cocoa butter gently on the hob or in the microwave. Mix the cocoa in until well combined. Add the avocado and blend until smooth (a wand blender works best). Mix in the protein powder and agave to taste. A your flavours and  nuts or dried fruit to taste. Combinations that work well are – hazelnut and dried cherry (rolled in chopped hazelnuts), cranberry and orange extra (rolled in dessicated coconut), roasted almonds rolled in cinnamon sugar, cayenne pepper (rolled in cocoa powder), peppermint extract, or just plain!  When smooth roll into small balls and roll in a coating if you want – it will seem very soft at this point but as the cacao butter cools they will firm. Leave in the fridge to cool, then enjoy!

Go bananas! Two delicious banana bread recipes

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So by special request I’ve had a go at banana bread this weekend. My first attempt was a dairy free, low gluten (spelt) banana bread and then I’ve also tried out my friend Colette’s mum’s recipe (modified to replace butter with oil and a few other little additions of my own) which does contain eggs (but these could be substituted out for apple puree). I’m not sure which I prefer. I’ve got so used to baking without eggs that I found the egg one a little odd to work with and I couldn’t work out if the batter was the right consistency or not. It actually came out fine and the texture is nice – a bit lighter and more bready than the dairy free version. The dairy free version is moist though and because I used wholemeal spelt flour it has a lovely nuttiness to it which I really like. So I thought I’d post both recipes and you can decide for yourself 🙂  Either of these recipes could have nuts added to them – walnuts would work particularly well, and if you’re feeling naughty you could throw in some dark chocolate chunks too!

Fresh out the oven!

Dairy free Banana Bread:

2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
1 cup coconut palm (or any unrefined) sugar
1/4 cup and 2 tbsps almond oil or olive oil
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup soya milk mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp himalayan rock salt

Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C. Line and grease a small loaf tin (approximately 8 inches x 4 inches).

Mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the oil and sugar together until well combined. Add the mashed bananas and the soya milk (to which vinegar has been added) and the vanilla extract. Add this mix to the flour mixture and stir well. Pour into the loaf tin and place in the oven for an hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Colette’s mum’s banana bread:

2 cups white spelt flour
1 cup coconut palm (or any unrefined) sugar
1/4 cup and 2 tbsps almond oil or olive oil
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking soda                                                                                                                      1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp himalayan rock salt

Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C. Line and grease a small loaf tin (approximately 8 inches x 4 inches).

In a large bowl mix the oil and sugar together until well combined, then add the mashed bananas and vanila extract. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt together.  Add half of this mix to the wet ingredients and mix well. Then add one egg and mix until combined. Add the rest of the flour mixture, stir well and add the final egg. Mix until well combined. Mix the bicarbonate of soda in 1/4 cup of hot water and stir in to the mixture. Pour into the loaf tin, sprinkle some unrefined coconut sugar over the top and place in the oven for an hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Perfect with a cup of tea 🙂

Scrumptious Carrot Cake

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Everyone loves carrot cake!

I’d been asked to make a “normal” carrot cake by my family so I decided to try to do the dirty on them and see if I could create a carrot cake that tasted like the full fat, full sugar, dairy-filled version but didn’t have any of that stuff in it. So  I came up with this dairy free, low gluten version using unrefined sugar and they didn’t even notice! In fact they said it was the best carrot cake they’d tasted – I almost didn’t have the heart to let them know it was a healthy version 😉

The apple puree as an egg substitute keeps this cake super moist. You can buy the pureed apple but it’s so easy to make I wouldn’t bother – just peel, core and slice some bramley apples and whack them in the microwave with a spoonful of water and blitz until soft 🙂 This recipe’s been featured on www.pureformfitnesskitchen.com 🙂

sticky, moist and simply delicious 🙂

175 g Coconut palm sugar (or other raw, unrefined sugar)

175 ml Almond oil (or other neutral oil e.g. olive oil, hazelnut oil etc)

9 tbsp of Apple puree – homemade

140 g grated Carrots

100 g Raisins

grated zest of 1 large Orange

175g Spelt flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp Ground cinnamon

½ tsp Grated nutmeg (freshly grated is best)

For the frosting:

1 cup Silken tofu

2 tbsp Almond oil/coconut oil/olive oil

2 tbsp Lemon juice (to taste)

3 – 4 tbsp Maple syrup or Agave nectar (to taste)

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Valencia orange extract (optional – to taste)

Preheat the oven to 160 C / gas 4. Line an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment and lightly oil with almond oil.

Put the sugar, oil and apple puree into a large mixing bowl and mix gently with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange zest.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and spices into the bowl and gently mix all the ingredients together. The mixture will be fairly runny. Pour this into the tin and bake for 40 – 45 mins, until it feels firm and springs back when you press it in the middle, and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 mins then turn it out and cool on a rack. This cake can be frozen at his point, or go on and frost it and eat it now!

For the frosting – blend all the ingredients together. Adjust maple syrup, lemon and orange extract to taste. If you find it is not sweet enough add 1 tbsp of unrefined golden icing sugar. Once blended spread on to the cooled cake and enjoy! 🙂