Comfort and joy!

Anyone else noticed the mornings are feeling cooler as we begin our shift into Autumn? The evenings are also darker. But, before you despair, think about all the lovely, warming, comfort food that awaits you....

Comfort

I have started having porridge for breakfast again. Obviously I tart it up though. There is something so evocative about a big bowl of steaming oats. There wasn't a snowy day that escaped my mother demanding my siblings and I ate a bowl before being bundled up and allowed outside to make snowmen. I can still taste it. Oats made with full fat milk and dark muscodavo sugar that made brown swirls through the creamy porridge. Heaven.

Blackberries, plums, apples, pears are all coming into season and make excellent hot or cold toppings for porridge. Add any combination of banana, chopped dates, cacao nibs, coconut chips, berries (dried or fresh), seeds, nuts, nut butter (I use home-made almond butter in mine as it makes everything taste amazing), honey, maple syrup, molasses and cinnamon and you will have a nutritious and delicious start to the day. If I'm working out lots (very rare) I'll also add a scoop of protein powder to the pan just before I switch it off.

I usually soak my oats for about 20mins in hot water with a spoon of chia seeds (extra protein) whilst I'm in the shower. This means they cook in no time, I add a non-dairy milk, like brown rice or almond, whilst it's cooking. 

Sometimes, you need some extra comfort. I have had a head cold this week and made a very piggy bowl of porridge this morning, which included medjool dates and a home-made chocolate nut cookie. Instant gratification!

My indulgent porridge:

Soak a cup of jumbo porridge oats in warm water for 20mins
Grate an apple and add to the oats
Add a handful of raisins 
1 tsp cinnamon
Add a splash of your choice of milk for a creamier porridge

Gently heat until the mixture thickens

To top:
1 sliced plum 
6 walnut halves

2 chopped medjool dates
A blob of almond butter (obvs)
Molasses, drizzled 
A nutty choco cookie (recipe below) if you desire it! 

Walnuts are a great source of omega 3, melatonin and vitamin E. They look like tiny brains which is what they are good for! 

Molasses is a great source of B-vits and iron. Great for all you veggies and vegans. It's ironic that it's a by-product of the sugar refining process when it's what contains all the minerals and nutrients. But, there you go. It's a mad world we live in. 
Molasses also contains a nutrient called PABA, which is a member of the B vitamins. It is useful for protecting the skin against damaging UV rays from the inside. Therefore protecting skin from sunburn and the development of skin cancer. I also read it can protect from the effects of breathing second hand smoke. I don't know if this has been proven though so don't quote me! 

Something else that instantly takes me back to my school days is semolina. We used to have it as a pudding with raspberry jam. I can still smell it, sweet and earthy. I bought a bag of semolina last week when I was feeling nostalgic. It warrants a home-made, Scandinavian style fresh jam to accompany it so maybe that's what I'll have a bash at this weekend. Ultimate comfort. Like a hug in a bowl!

Joy

There are occasions when no matter how many times I open the fridge or cupboard doors, no chocolate materialises. Neither does any cake, or biscuits. This is what is known as an EMERGENCY. 

I have two recipes on stand by for such emergencies that are quick and easy to make and only require a few ingredients. Take note:

Chocolate nut fudge cookies (these were inspired by a recipe in Deliciously Ella. I improved them though. Obviously.)

Ingredients:

150g ground almonds
150g walnuts
100g coconut flour
50g milled flax seeds
6 medjool dates or 10 smaller dates (I personally like the Iranian dates. They are small and very gooey!)
3 tablespoons chia seeds
3 tablespoons cacao powder
2 tablespoons coconut oil

Method:

Blend eveything in a blender and add about 75-100ml water to make a sticky dough. If too wet, simple add a bit more ground flax seed.

Spoon out blobs of the mixture and make it into as much of a ball as possible. Place on a baking tray and squash it with a spatula. Bake in the oven for about 15mins, on about 180 degrees Celsius, checking them halfway through. Feel free to squash them with a spatula if you want them flatter! When you deem them done, carefully slide each cookie onto a cooling tray. Try not to eat them all at once. Unless you really really need to.

NOW! The party ain't over! If you have a powerful blender this is where you can REALLY have some fun! Make ice-cream sandwiches by blending 2 frozen bananas, a few dates and some peanut butter (optional). Whiz it all up and scoop a blob between two cookies (make sure they have cooled first!). Shove in your gob. Close your eyes. Enjoy the moment. 

No Bake Vegan Brownies

These babies take about 10 mins prep time. They do need to set in the freezer for about an hour though. Sorry!

Ingredients:

110g coconut flour
150g coconut oil
50g raw cacao powder
50g medium oatmeal (omit if you want them gluten-free)
1tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons agave nectar
50g chopped nuts (optional)

Method:

Mix all ingredients together (gently melt coconut oil in a bowl above simmering water if it is too solid)
Grease a square brownie tin and line with cling-film. pour mixture in and set in freezer for about 1hr. 

These are great on their own, with a mug of coffee for breakfast, or broken up on ice-cream. 

Coming soon....my raw, vegan salted caramel slice recipe. It's worth waiting for.....

Eat well. Xx

Smoothie operator

Just when I thought I had mastered the art of making and drinking smoothies, I discover I am doing it all wrong.

I have fallen for smoothie bowls. Search for #smoothiebowl on Instagram and hundreds of beautiful creations will appear and if you're like me you'll be salivating and thinking about them day and night.

The idea is to make a smoothie and eat it from a bowl. Revolutionary, non? It makes sense. When you blitz a meal and drink it down quickly, the digestive process doesn't get a chance to work as well as it would if you were chewing solid food and then swallowing it. When we chew we produce amylase in our saliva. This is an important enzyme which breaks down starch and kicks off the rest of the digestive process in your body. Your liquid meal will arrive in your stomach more quickly than solid food would, meaning you might not digest it properly or absorb all the nutrients as well. 

What I find so appealing about these bowls of loveliness is how they can be decorated to look so appetising. To make a smoothie bowl, I start with a base of vegan milk or coconut water, a banana (preferably frozen), a tea spoon or two of nut butter and a scoop of vegan/veggie protein powder. Then you can freestyle it to your mood! Add fruit (fresh or frozen), powdered greens or spirulina, oats, avocado, seeds. Finally, to decorate your gloop use fruit, nuts, seeds, goji berries, dried mullberries, shelled hemp seeds, chia seeds, dessicated coconut or coconut chips, cacao nibs, nut butters, superfoods, even edible flowers! The only limit is your imagination.

I have compiled a few recipes below but they are so versatile and can be varied as much as you choose. I'm a bit of a renegade in the kitchen and don't tend to measure out ingredients so just try and experiment a bit with quantities. It's all personal preference anyway.

I use a Vitamix in my kitchen. It is an expensive piece of equipment but so worth it. It is high powered and the blades can deal with frozen bananas, hard nuts and ice for when I need an emergency frozen margarita or six.

Cheeky Monkey

1 tablespoon chia seeds soaked over night in vanilla rice milk

8fl oz vanilla rice milk

1 frozen banana 

1/2 cup organic jumbo rolled oats

1 scoop of banana split spirutein protein powder (Nature's Plus)

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

Blitz all together in food processor.

(If the consistancy is too thick just add some filtered water and give it another whizz in the food processor)

For topping: toasted coconut chips, banana slices and raw cacao nibs.

Green Energy

8fl oz vegan milk like almond milk

1 frozen banana

2 scoops of Source of Life energy shake (From Nature's Plus)

1/2 cup jumbo rolled oats

2 tspoons almond butter

1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

To top: raw cacao nibs, dessicated coconut, fresh strawberries and spirulina crunchies

Berry Tempting

8fl oz vegan milk or coconut water

1 frozen banana

1 cup mixed frozen berries

1 tablespoon acai powder

1 teaspoon almond butter

To top: 1 sliced kiwi, strawberries, dessicated coconut and cacao nibs.

Chocolate Dream

8fl oz Coconut water

1/2 ripe avocado 

2 tablespoons raw cacao powder

1 tablespoon ground almonds

2 medjool dates

To top: 1/2 ripe avocado, raspberries, blackberries, whole almonds, toasted coconut chips. 

I defy you not to go to your happy place whilst eating this!

Here are some variations:

Total food porn. 

Now go forth and create beautiful smoothie bowls!

Eat well. Xx

www.naturesplus.com for protein powder info and stockists

www.bonpom.com for raw super foods and treats!

A few of my favourite things...

I was fortunate to find myself at the natural food and products Mecca that is The Natural Products Show in London Olympia a few weeks ago. The food section is always exciting and I love seeing (and tasting!) all the new and innovative products.

Amongst all the stalls of health foods and natural products there were a few gems which really stood out. Here are a few I found that are definitely worth checking out:

The first product I fell upon was this AMAZING organic sesame and cocoa spread from Sunita www.sunitafoods.co.uk which is totally addictive and I have to hide it to prevent myself from attacking it with a spoon and devouring the whole lot! It's basically chocolate tahini spread. Good on its own or on whatever (or whoever) you fancy!

I'm a big fan of their solid blocks of polenta which I fry in olive oil and eat hot or cold. They also have a great range of non chocolatey tahini. That seems really plain and boring now I have dipped my finger in the chocolate one!!

Another, more unusual product that is perhaps an acquired taste, but I find delicious, spirulina with raw honey by a Lithuanian company called Spila. They have a range of food supplements containing; spirulina and raw honey (Spila Bee). My favourite is the spirulina with raw honey and propolis (Spila Pro). Propolis, a resinous substance which is collected by bees from vegetation, has powerful, immune boosting properties.

 Spila C is chlorella with honey. Chlorella is a chlorophyll rich algae that is used to alkalise, detoxify and remove heavy metals from the body. Amongst other benefits it has also been found to increase probiotic population in the digestive tract. Chlorella is now used as a complementary supplement during radiotherapy. Its naturally high chlorophyll content is known to protect the body against harmful ultraviolet radiation.

I was also given a sample of spirulina chocolate to try. Surprisingly good but probably an acquired taste if you aren't used to the taste of spirulina. Another product which grabbed my attention and I will have to try is their Brewers yeast with propolis in honey. Sounds amazing!

Visit their website; www.spila.lt (get google to translate if you don't read Lithuanian!).

They stood no chance!

Great news!!! One of my favourite treats from The Raw Chocolate Company has gone snack size!! This is lucky as I am a greedy, compulsive pig and normally have to eat their raw chocolate mulberries until I feel sick and rather hyperactive!! Now available in pocket sized 32g snack packs. As are their raw chocolate covered goji berries. More great news!!!: their goji berries are now ORGANIC! This is fantastic as most inorganic goji berries are sprayed within an inch of their little red
lives with pesticides. Not so healthy after all!

www.therawchocolatecompany.com

The winning products I found and love are new bars called Chimpanzee bars. Whilst the health food market is chockablock with various protein and energy bars, these delicious vegan bars are unpretentious, organic and "made wih love". They come in raisin and walnut, apricot, dates and walnut and a new flavour I tried which was my favourite...beetroot and carrot! Check out their lovely website Www.Chimpanzeebar.co.uk

Available in only a few independent health food shops, Realfoods and cycle surgery. I would LOVE to see these bars more widely available.

And that's a wrap!

Thank you to all the lovely companies for the samples and keep up the good work!

See you all next year!

Eat well.