Tag Archives: vegetarian protein

Salt and Spice and all things nice! The smallest pumpkin in the world and a yummy pumpkin seed snack!

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Well, when I asked for a small pumpkin I wasn’t expecting something quite as small as this….

But anyone who knows me knows I love a challenge so not to be thwarted I decided I’d do my best with this little munchkin of a pumpkin and lo and behold look what I managed to create! Scary eh?

So there wasn’t much meat in this little pumpkin so rather than create the pumpkin-based hallowe’en cake I had planned I decided instead to do something funky with the seeds. It’s a sweet salty treat which sounds odd but combines some wonderful autumn flavours. I adapted it from the SNOG healthy treats book.

Salty and Spicey Sweet potato, raisin, pumpkin seed yumminess!

So I started off by creating some salted roasted seeds. Take your pumpkin seeds, remove all the stringy bits of pumpkin flesh and put in a pan. For every half cup of pumpkin seeds add 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and allow to cool slightly.

Then spread them out in one layer on a baking tray and place in an oven at 200 degrees C for anything from 5 – 15 minutes. Just keep checking them as it will depend how big the seeds are. Mine took around 8 minutes 🙂

These are yummy as they are or you can hull (de-husk) them if you really want to (I couldn’t be bothered!). Eat them just like this or use them in the next bit of the recipe.

Take 1 sweet potato and cut it into 1cm cubes. Spread on a baking tray with 2 – 3 tablespoons of the salted roasted pumpkin seeds. Add a handful of raisins and then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of coconut palm sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Finally drizzle over some coconut oil (approx 2 tablespoons) and place in the oven at 190 degrees C for about 20 – 25 minutes until the sweet potato is cooked through and the sugar is caramelised. Stir occasionally.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then enjoy on it’s own or spoon it over some natural yoghurt (or ice cream!). It sounds odd but trust me – the sweetness of the sweet potato and raisins go really well with the salty roasted seeds and the cinnamon adds a lovely autumnal twist! Divine and healthy too! 🙂

Happy Hallowe’en!

Raw Fruit and Nut Protein Bars

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I’m currently doing the amazing 28 day Ultimate Fat loss Programme from Pure Form Fitness. It’s a fantastic eating programme with natural supplements and education and involves eliminating various allergens from your diet for the first 14 days. So as a result there’s been no baking this weekend but I was inspired by Gabby’s recipe at the veggienook and decided to make a programme friendly snack. It’s a combination of my raw cocoa-orange balls and Gabby’s recipe and it’s delish! I was sort of making it up as I went along so I’m sorry for the measurements but to be honest you can just adjust these as you like until you get the texture and taste you like – if you like more apricots throw some more in, if you are a nut fan up the nuts! simple! 🙂

handful of raw cashews

handful of raw almonds (normal or blanched – your choice)

5 – 8 dried dates

small handful of raisins

small handful of dried, unsweetened apricots (the nice juicy ones!)

A good handful of shelled hemp

I – 2 scoops of Pure Protein Powder (vanilla)

a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Pop all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz until it forms a sticky dough/paste. Adjust the quantities if necessary – if it is too moist add some more nuts and shelled hemp, if too dry had a date or two, or an apricot. I tried to make this into bars – they’re a wee bit soft but they work ok! Line a tupperware box with clingfilm and then press the mixture in to it. Place in the fridge and then cut and eat whenever you need an extra protein boost, or just a nice yummy snack!

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!