Super Healthified Banana Bread

I told you I'd make a loaf of banana bread, didn't I? Well I didn't go back on my word...and here is the mouthwatering photographic evidence.



I've always been a sucker for my Mum's notorious banana cake. Needless to say, as with many other banana cake/bread recipes, it was misleadingly unhealthy (misleading because really, you'd expect a cake based around the humble banana to be somewhat healthy, wouldn't you?) -- packed with sugar, refined white flour, aaand... I don't remember what else. Probably a generous amount of butter/marg. But we don't want none of that!

So I guess you could say that this recipe acts as a kind of antidote or counterbalance to my Mum's banana cake recipe. Based upon this original recipe, I've adapted it very slightly to enhance its healthiness even more. You'd probably be pushed to find a healthier banana cake recipe, especially one that caters to both vegans (err...minus the honey) and those with gluten sensitivity. It sits just the right side of moist, has a gorgeous flavour and hits the sweet-tooth spot naturally (just bananas and 2 tablespoons of manuka honey to thank for that one). So yeah...delve in!



Ingredients:

200g spelt flour
2x 27g packets of quick-cook Quakers Oats
1t baking powder
1t baking soda
1t ground cinnamon
(Up to) 1t vanilla paste
4 medium sized bananas, ripe
50ml almond milk (unsweetened)
6T coconut oil
2T manuka honey
90g walnuts, 30g pumpkin seeds (add whatever nut/seed/dried fruit you prefer)

Pre-heat your oven to 350C or gas mark 4. Line a loaf tin with parchment paper (grease with a smidgen of coconut oil). That's the boring stuff out of the way. Now onto the mashing. Ahh yeah.



Get your ripened bananas and place (without skins!) in a (sizeable) bowl. Mash until they're nice n' squelchy. Meanwhile, melt your coconut oil in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. This shouldn't take too long. Remove the bowl from the heat and allow to cool slightly. When it has cooled, add it to your banana mix and combine well; add all other wet ingredients (hello vanilla, almond milk and honey), and stir vigorously. Might as well get an arm workout in there, eh?

Now that your wet stuff is all sorted, sieve the spelt flour into a separate bowl. This took me a bloody long time because spelt flour seems to have quite a lot of large grainy pieces that just got in the way whilst sieving. I orginally wanted to use all 260g of the spelt flour (as the original recipe had suggested); however, by the 200g mark my arm was aching somewhat from holding the sieve for so long - alas, I reached out for my trusty oats to save the day. Quakers did the job juuust fine.

Add the baking powder and soda into the flour mixture, plus the teaspoon of cinnamon (vital! Cinnamon can do no wrong), and stir well before gradually adding the dry mix to the wet. Keep on top of the blending and 'folding' sitch (yep, I do know some baking lingo) until you've got yourself a lovely looking batter.

All that's left to do is to measure your nuts and add them to the final mixture. Spoon into your tin, and place into the oven for up to 50 minutes. When time's finally up, remove from the oven and leave to cool. In my case, I was knife-in-hand after about 5 minutes of removing mine from the oven (naughty, I know). But hey, who am I kidding - warm/hot banana cake is simply too good to pass up on, especially when it's lathered with a dollop of peanut butter (a new discovery, and a match made in heaven).

Does anyone have any banana bread recipes to rival mine? This one seems to be calling my name... protein banana bread? Don't mind if I do!

Recipes for lazy girls: Veggie Omelette

The Omelette: what better recipe is there to fill ones stomach to such a satisfactory level, all the while keeping things nicely tidy (note: bare minimum washing up, and even less surface cleaning - unless you manage to get egg juice everywhere. uh...) and super healthy? (the answer you're looking for is there are no better recipes out there. Let's get omelette-ing!).



So this I have aptly named my 'veggie pizza omelette' recipe. The nifty inclusion of oregano (recently appointed Favourite Herb Ever, by me) tricks you into thinking you're eating pizza - when actually, you're basically eating glorified eggs and veg, all mashed up together (not literally).

This is a suitable recipe for a) Lazy girls, and even more so for b) Lazy girls who've just been for a killer run and want some nosh quick-sharpish (a run in the rain, I hasten to add). Doesn't it look appealing? Well, let me tell you: it was.

Eggs are pretty cool, and especially so for runners; full with the nutrient choline (one large egg has 30% of your daily value, mostly in the yolk), they help to keep the joints free from inflammation. They're also packed with vitamin D, vitamins A and E, and are a great source of iron (iron creates haemoglobin, which transports oxygen to your muscles), zinc, and protein, containing all 9 essential amino acids (making them the most 'complete' source of protein available, knocking the chicken's pride for six. Oh wait...without the chicken we wouldn't have the egg in the first place. My bad).



Simply chop up your preferred choices of veg (I used mini sweetcorn cobs, mini tomatoes, plus frozen peas and sweetcorn and one boiled potato - however, feel free to jazz up your omelette in any which way you deem suitable! Spring onions, cucumber, broccoli, peppers...hey, anything goes. Go crazy!) and heat a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil on a frying pan over high-heat. Add your frozen veg first to allow them to soften slightly before chucking the rest in. Meanwhile, whisk your eggs (I used 3 large free-range eggs) and add to the pan after a few minutes, spreading the mixture evenly across the veg.

Add salt and pepper (plenty of black pepper, in my case) and herbs de preference - oregano, if you want to experience and taste that sososweet scent nostalgic of Italian pizzeria's (not that I've ever even been to a proper Italia pizzeria. But I can use my imagination in this case). Allow to cook for a few minutes before placing your pan onto a heated grill to cook the omelette from above. Your omelette should be good to go and smash down the oesophagus in a matter of minutes. The ultimate 10 minute meal for runners, or any athlete/human being; you gotta give credit to the humble egg/chicken.

The Art of Homemade Granola

In the current climate of my life, early morning awakenings seem to be a common trend - alongside a diminishing timescale in which to get ready and leave the house by (all in the hope of getting to work on time). It's times like these that porridge just doesn't quite suffice; though it ticks all other criteria, there's no getting around the fact that it is somewhat time consuming to prepare in the morning (besides the issue that once it is cooked, you need to wait yet again for the damn stuff to cool! So not cool, porridge. Sort it out mate).

Fretting over, I found me a delicious way to satisfy my morning cravings for oats in a way that doesn't involve incessantly boiling them on the stove with innate precision). Well hello, good-ol' homemade nutty granola. Where have you been all my life?

There must surely be very few people who dislike granola. Though whilst supermarkets often have a huge variety of every kind of granola you could imagine, chances are that these oh-so appealing boxes of oat-y deliciousness are also full of unnecessary added sugars, and are likely to be made with not-so-good-for-you oils as 'stickeners' (Check the ingredients on the back of the box if you don't believe me!).

This - along with other factors, namely being the price tag - is why homemade granola is a hellalot better than your average pack of Jordan's (who apparently have 41% of the £13 million granola market. See what I mean about price now?!).

Making your homemade granola mix is simples, and you can easily adapt the following recipe to suit whatever nuts/seeds you prefer (or rather, whatever you have stocked up). It also fills the house with a gorgeous whiff reminiscent of breakfast time - the sweet warm scent of oats, nuts and honey is practically unbeatable (perhaps only just capped by the amazing smell that is banana bread in the oven. Oh, heaven's above!).



Ingredients (dry):

150g porridge oats
40g almonds
25g walnuts
25g cashews
2 tablespoons pistachios (can sub for seeds, i.e. sesame seeds or flax)
1 tablespoon ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (ground)

Ingredients (wet & optional additions):

3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon manuka honey
a few drops almond extract (optional)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 tablespoons dried fruit of choice (I chopped up 6 dried apricots)

Pre-heat the oven to 300C/gas mark 2 and line a baking tray in (suitably organised) preparation. Place your oats into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, place all of your nuts and crush slightly, until they're a suitable slap-dash mix of whole and somewhat crushed/chopped/battered nuts. Combine all dry ingredients and stir.

Meanwhile, melt your coconut oil over low heat before adding the honey. Once the coconut oil has liquified, remove from heat and add your optional almond extract and vanilla bean paste. Pour the mix into the dry ingredients, and stir well to incorporate every ingredient, until the oats/nuts are fully coated and a little sticky.

Spread your mix onto the baking tray and place in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Remove from heat, and leave to cool before adding your dried fruit (an option for those looking for sweetness to enhance and balance the nutty-oat-y flavour of the granola. Place in an air-tight container to keep your homemade batch fresh for around a few weeks (if you did it right, though, your granola shouldn't last even half that long. Trust in the power of homemade granola!).




And there we have it. This recipe was based on a post over at Iowa Girl Eats - my granola totally doesn't look a patch on hers, though admittedly I did reduce the amount of additional natural sweeteners that Kristin originally used.

A Love Affair with Ginger

I've always had a bit of an underlying love for ginger (please note, I am referring to the spice, not particularly the hair colour or any person associated with such hair colour...though a huge crush on Robert Kazinsky definitely did happen in my teenage years. I clearly remember my state of devastation when he left Eastenders, not to sound overly hopeless/pathetic or anything).

I remember ye olde days of ginger-ale guzzling in my grandparent's bungalow; having recently rekindled my love for ginger-fied drinks (non alcoholic ginger beer being favoured above ginger ale), it's really brought to light how taste can so easily be associated with forgotten memories, the surprising pangs of nostalgia being introduced with every sip (and with that said, this homemade version of my childhood favourite is definitely on the cards this summer).

And my ginger love affair doesn't stop there. My inclination towards the humble ginger spice has inevitably lead me on to researching baking recipes based around the ingredient. I've yet to extend my adventures of ginger towards purchasing actual chunks of ginger, but I thought simple ground ginger would be a good place to start (alongside the fact I already had some stashed away in the kitchen cupboards - seemingly untouched, too).

The original plan was to make this gingerbread protein fudge. However, today all I really wanted was something similarly nostalgic to ginger beer, and ultimately something comforting, tasty and...satisfying. Introducing my super healthy recipe for ginger cookies...they know whatsup.



Ingredients:

50g coconut flour
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1.5 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 teaspoon manuka honey
6 tablespoons milk of choice
1 tablespoon kefir/buttermilk
1 whole egg plus 1 egg white
2 teaspoons ground ginger spice
Optional additions: ground cinnamon, crushed nuts/dried fruit of choice (as a filler), or vanilla paste (1/2 teaspoon)

Sieve the coconut flour and then add the bicarbonate of soda, salt and ginger spice. Add wet ingredients, one by one, until the dough is mixed thoroughly. Form into balls (I made 11 medium-sized cookies with my dough) and place on a lined, greased baking tray. Squash the balls down (so that they resemble something along the lines of cookies) and place in your oven, pre-heated to 180C (gas mark 4) for around 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat when they've reached a golden-brown exterior, and leave to cool on a wire rack.

And there we have it. Unintentionally, while I've called these ginger cookies, I have to say that they have the texture of a cake! So, y'know, I just managed to create a cookie-cake hybrid without prior knowledge...you can just imagine how impressed I am with myself now, haha...

In other, completely non-baking related news, I have a new job!!! I'm now an assistant in the Foreign Exchange Bureau department at Marks & Spencer, and I am so, so pleased to finally have a new job whereby I hope I can acquire lots of fresh skills and confidence in something other than...well, carrying really heavy trays of (very expensive) food. Lolza.

At 53.6 calories a pop, these aren't bad at all. Hell, I'd go as far as saying the complete opposite...not to blow my own trump, or anything...though isn't that what blogging's all about?! Aha (ALSO, those fussy, nitty gritty calculations: 2g protein per cookie, 3.1g fat [2.4g saturated, but don't sweat it - it's the medium-chain kind, so it's all good for ya basically], 4g carbs, of which 3g sugars).

Long Live Ginger! (And Robert Kazinsky...who is probably more yum than a world's worth of these ginger cookies...even so, give this recipe a whirl if you're similarly ginger-inclined).

Cauliflower Soda Bread

My aversion to bread began a fair few months ago, after finally understanding the whole deal with how bad gluten and wheat is for digestion (for mine in particular - obviously everybody is different and has different tolerance levels when it comes to processing foods present with gluten).

Having been brought up following the traditional English rule of having sandwiches for lunch 90% of the time, I guess you could say that cutting bread out of my diet was a drastic decision - and yet one of the best decisions I've ever made. I no longer crave bread* or starchy products like pasta and spaghetti, and actually avoid them like the plague. When I do delve into a bread/pasta based meal, I feel physically dreadful afterwards - which just goes to show how much of a positive difference cutting gluten out of your diet can bring to your digestive system. (*The only exception being the chilli and parmesan soda bread at work, as I've mentioned before - deeelish)

Nevertheless, today I've entered no-Katie's-land and baked my very own bread! I'd have never thought that I'd bother with the rigmarole of baking bread from scratch when it's so easy just to pop to the shops or local bakery and buy some, yet this recipe was just calling my name, and it's been in the back of my head to make it for a good few weeks now. So I took the plunge, bought the cauliflower and parmesan (the only two 'unusual' ingredients, the rest were conveniently the kind of household products that we always have stocked up: brownie point 1!).

I found the recipe here, amongst tons of other amazing looking creations *blogger's envy* and it immediately intrigued me. Alas, chit-chat over, here is my version of Viviane's wonderful recipe.



Ingredients:

1 medium cauliflower, chopped into chunks
5 egg whites
1 whole egg
25g parmesan cheese + extra for topping
50g coconut flour
1 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon paprika powder (optional: can omit, or replace with garlic powder, chilli powder, etc)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Pepper to season (optional)

Firstly, preheat your oven to gas mark 6/200C. Next, using a food processor, pulverise your cauliflower in sections (my food processor couldn't handle lots of it at one time). Transfer what should resemble cauliflower rice to a bowl, and using a sieve add your coconut flour, followed by the eggs, salt, lemon juice, bicarb of soda, paprika and a crunch or few of pepper.

Grate 25g parmesan cheese into the bowl, and mix well again until all ingredients are evenly blended. Line a baking loaf tin with parchment paper, nicely greased all over with coconut oil, and place the mixture into the tin, smoothing the top to avoid an ugly-looking loaf. Spinkle with a dusting of paprika/powder of choice, plus a pinch of salt and pepper, and some additional parmesan (because you can never go wrong with extra cheesiness).

Lower your oven heat to gas mark 5/190C and place the tin inside. Bake for ten minutes, then lower the temp to gas mark 4 or 180C and bake for another 50 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. The smell is something akin to savoury, cheesey popcorn - not the usual farty cauliflower smell, I can assure you!



High in fibre, vitamin C, vitamin K, omega-3 fatty acids and manganese, cauliflower sure delivers a nutritional punch - along with the coconut flour (a low-carb, high-protein and fibre alternative to other flours, which is also an excellent source of lauric acid, maganese and vitamin C), plus a whole lotta protein* and vitamin D from the eggs, this bread is definitely well up there in the stakes for healthiest breads ever (*Viviane didn't title it Cauliflower Protein Bread for nothing, y'know...try not to feel full after this amount of protein!). The additional paprika/spices is also super for increasing the metabolism...so ultimately, just make this, okay?

One serving is 2 slices/one sixth of the loaf, and contains approximately 110 calories, 15g protein, 2.7g fat, 5.1g carbs (2.7g sugars) and 4.2g fibre. Yep, a bread recipe that contains three times more protein than carbs(!!!). I'm very pleased with the outcome - there's something oh so satisfying about baking homemade bread (I get the hype now, bit late on the uptake). Next test: toasting cauliflower bread, and topping with something delicious (You know what I'm thinking? A classic, homely lunch of beans on toast, being one of my ultimate Childhood comfort meals that I miss tremendously. Decision = made).

Faux-Reece's Peanut Butter cups (Healthified!)

If I were to relapse against the whole 'eat clean' diet thing (and I do, more or less daily - especially at work. The parmesan and chilli soda bread is to die for, and don't get me started on those blimin' petit fours), I'd rekindle my love for Reece's peanut butter cups. Those, to me, were perfection, and by far the best offering in the entire sweet/chocolate aisle. Quite a statement, huh?

Even so, despite my previous devotion to all things Reece's, I think I might've just found a recipe to replicate that familiar feeling of stomach-fulfilment without the preceding guilt; introducing the wonder that is the all-healthy, all singing-and-dancing, homemade faux-Reece's cups. These are the bomb, and an absolute must-make recipe for all my fellow Reece's fanatics out there (and somehow I'm pretty sure there are a lot of you). Recipe found at Detoxinista, altered/healthified (even more) by me.



Ingredients:

2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter (salted)
2 over-ripe bananas
1 tablespoon agave nectar
2 tablespoons coconut flour
40g dark chocolate (4 squares of Lindt 90%)
1 teaspoon coconut oil

As always, the process is simples: mash the bananas and combine with the peanut butter, agave and coconut flour in a mixing bowl until the consistency is creamy and irresistible. Grab a baking tray and place the mix into scoops onto the tray (I used mini cupcake holders to recreate that 'cup' effect - y'know, with the crinkled edges and all. I love that shit, and it's all part-and-parcel of the whole mind-blown oh-god-these-are--actually-as-good-as-Reece's effect).



Place the tray in the freezer to set whilst melting your chocolate and coconut oil in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Stir to combine, before fetching the tray once more to drizzle on the melted chocolate/oil, filling in the little gaps at the edges (or, if you chose to scoop sans-cups, drizzle on as best as you can to cover the balls). If your 'balls' are able to be picked up and dipped into the chocolate (as they should be, according to the original recipe. Doh), by all means do so to cover the entire thing (mine were too 'moist'. Yep, I said it...sorry).

Set in the freezer once more for at least 10 minutes before re-experiencing that chocolate/PB love affair (but with a banana-y, coconutty twist). Oh, yes - those were the glory days (and your taste buds are about to be taken back - hurrah)!

'A Bit of Everything' Cookies! (Best to date?)

These fulfil practically every desirable quality you could possible wish for in a cookie. Chewy? Check. Sweet? Check. Immensely tasty? Check. Moreish? Check. Guilt-inducing and laden with fat and sugar? Uh, hell no!



The 'A Bit of Everything' cookies are true to their name; they contain just a little bit of everything, bringing together all the best and most nutritious ingredients (featuring a few of my favourites, including cinnamon, avocado, PB, oats, among others - this is a match made in healthy heaven!) to form the ultimate tea-break snack.

The ingredients are as follows (makes 12 small cookies):

1 ripe banana (the browner the better)
1/4 avocado
2 tablespoons peanut butter
35g oats
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (I used Bournville)
2 tablespoons almond flour (original recipe suggests quinoa flour. Almond flour was just easier for me)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon agave
1 teaspoon manuka honey

As with most of the recipes I post on here, there's not a lot to do here, so the technicality level = super easy. That's ultimately what I look for prior to baking anything, as I just can't cope with fussing in the kitchen. And these were very quick to prepare, even by my standards.

Pre-heat your oven to 350C (gas mark 4) and grease a cookie sheet with coconut oil (I lined a baking tray with foil to minimise washing-up time and optimise laziness). Mash up your avocado with the banana, add the 2T of PB and the rest of the 'wet' ingredients (agave and manuka for sweetness). Add the remaining dry ingredients (oats, almond flour/flour of choice, cinnamon) and mix well.

Spoon the mixture, dollop by dollop, onto the baking tray, and whack in the oven for 20 minutes approximately. Ideally, you should leave them to cool to harden slightly...but that didn't stop by boyfriend from munching his way through the batch! Probably the best healthy cookie recipe found and tried/tested to date*, courtesy of the Queen of Quinoa (link takes you to the original recipe, but there are plenty more on Alyssa's blog worth trying!).

*If you didn't believe me, the proof is in the lack of photos...did you notice? Haha :) PS. that poorly shot single image above doesn't do these cookies any kind of justice, so you'll just have to trust my word when I say you should deffo make these! Hey, at least I accidentally artfully arranged the 3 remaining cookies in a heart shape, riiight?

Chickpea Blondies!

I'm continuously finding new blogs to pore over - and as a result, feel increasingly out of my depth in this whole healthy/fitness blogging community! As in, how am I even supposed to compete with the likes of amazing blogs like this and this?! Even on the basis of photography, these blogs are outstanding - not to mention their content!

One blog of note that's been permanently stuck on my long line of tabs is that of ChocolateCoveredKatie (is it just me or are there millions of food bloggers/bloggers in general called Katie? Or am I just specifically hunting out the Katie bloggers? Maybe so). Anyway, Katie's blog is full of unique, low-cal and super tasty dessert recipes that are simple to follow and easy to make! And with that, I'll introduce these chickpea blondies, a recipe based on this original recipe by Katie (slightly adapted by me).



Ingredients:

300g chickpeas, cooked (I bought a dry packet of chickpeas as it's more economical than buying the canned versions - though be aware that they'll require soaking overnight, plus 150 minutes on the hob! Ouch...maybe not so economical after all...)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan salt
2 teaspoons brown granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon agave nectar
1 large banana
1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract
1 x 27g pack quick oats (Quakers Oats)
2 heaped Tablespoons peanut butter
1 teaspoon coconut oil
20g dark chocolate chips (optional)

Another failed attempt at using the food processor meant transferring my half-beaten chickpea/banana mix to a bowl - someone buy me a decent food processor please? (A vita-mix would be just ideal! Then I can be like all of the other food bloggers, and life would be sweet)



Never-the-less - blend, beat, mash, fork, destroy all ingredients together until you've got yourself a good, batter-y consistency. The final ingredient should be your chocolate chips, if you wish to include them (it's probably for the best). Grease a baking tin (I used a fairly shallow quiche-style dish, which very, very almost managed to fit the whole shabang inside...but not quite. And that is when paper cupcake holders come into swift action).

Your oven should be pre-heated to 350c or gas mark 4. Slide your filled tray/tin/cupcake holders etc into the upper shelf and watch/smell the magic happen...oh, yes; the smell. Seriously good stuff. Remove from the oven after about 30 minutes, and leave to cool (again - if you manage to resist. Resistence is futile! I've probably said that before, but hey, the phrase will - or should, if my baking's up to scratch - always comply!).

The whole batch totals at just over 1000 cals, so split into 10 portions and you've got yourself a super nutritious and delicious pre/post-workout snack/tea-time treat coming in at a measly 100 calories (also if you're interested, 3.4g fat - 1.2g of which saturates - 27g carbs - 22g fibre, 5.6g sugar - plus 3g protein).

Pure, unadulterated bliss - in blondie form. Go on - tuck in!

Broccoli Avocado Soup

When Mum's away...Katie shall play! Or rather...Katie shall make soup. Yes, that's more like it.



I decided to make a soup for dinner dinner based upon the facts that a) There was half a leftover avocado in the fridge, b) The kitchen goddess (Mother dearest) is out for the night, and c) I just craved soup, badly. So having come across this recipe, I thought I'd adapt it somewhat and give it a good old whirl.

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, sliced 'n' diced
Teaspoon coconut oil
Spices: Paprika (1/2 teaspoon), Herbs de Provence (pinch), black pepper (optional amount) and a pinch of salt
A few florets of broccoli (I used 3...because I ran out. But nonetheless, it was the perfect amount anyway)
1 vegetable stock, soaked in 190ml boiling water
1/2 pitted avocado
Squeeze of lemon (1/2 teaspoon)

I so love the easiness of soup making! This recipe took all of 15 minutes to prepare, and I have to say I was really impressed with the outcome (besides the obvious fact that it is so very GREEN. I'm not one to care about the colours of my food, but I know of others who'd be put-off - oh well, more for me?).



The creaminess of the avocado sits just right with the vegetable flavouring, plus the garlic, spices and lemon added that necessary twist to jazz up the taste somewhat. Here's how to make it, if you wanted to try for yourself. Bear in mind that this only serves one little stomach - double up (or triple/quadruple etc) for those with a heftier appetite, or those dining with company!

Dissolve your veg stock in 190ml boiling water, stirring regularly. Bring to the boil, and add your florets of broccoli to the liquid. Cook until the broccoli is tender. Meanwhile, in a larger soup pan, melt your coconut oil on high heat and add your diced garlic, plus the spices and herbs. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, by which time your broccoli should be cooked. Add the stock mix to the soup pan (should still be bubbling hot) and let simmer. Stir, then leave it to sit and cool slightly.

Next, you want to pour the concoction into your blender, adding your avocado on top. Whizz up, and when the consistency is nice and creamy, pour back into the pan and heat the soup throughout. Serve immediately, and enjoy!




I combined my soup with a side of 2 ryvita crackers plus a few tablespoons of Lithuanian potato salad - the latter of which is so, so delicious! I'll share the recipe soon - or at least when I find out how to make it myself (My mum's taken a fancy to making the stuff after tasting a shop-bought version that my boyfriend regularly buys...much to my boyfriends delight, might I add. He could easily demolish the whole lot within a day! To be completely fair though, so could I!).



Has anyone else been Winter-proofing themselves with a piping hot and hearty soup for dinner/lunch?

Coconut Cake with Banana-Choc Frosting

I decided to make this cake at around midnight last night; a combination of boredom (I was waiting up for my boyfriend to return from a late shift at work), intrigue of the original recipe, and - probably the foremost reason - because today it was, of course, Mother's day.




Knowing that my mum is a lover of coconut, almond/nuts, bananas and chocolate, making this cake seemed a natural decision in terms of the chief ingredients. And it's mighty healthy, too - that kinda goes without saying, seeing as this is a health/fitness blog, after all. The ingredients aren't too "out there", either (don't you just hate finding a recipe with a huge list of ingredients that you've never even heard of before? Or worse...having every ingredient bar one measly item. A baker's life... it sure is cruel sometimes). You might even find that you have every ingredient already stocked up in your cupboards - in which case, what are you waiting for?

Alas, enough of the rambling already - here are the instructions on how to make this wondrous cake. Delve on in.

Ingredients (CAKE):

3 large eggs
240ml milk of choice (I used almond milk - original recipe suggests coconut milk. My kitchen cupboards didn't concur)
3 heaped tablespoons coconut oil
60ml honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
80g ground almonds ('almond flour')
1 tablespoon coconut flour (I think I added 1 more after for a thicker paste - sometimes it's all about experimental baking/winging it...)
100g shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/4 teaspoon salt (a pinch should be adequate!)

FROSTING:

1 ripe banana
4 teaspoons cocoa powder
A little added sweetness (1 teaspoon agave/honey)
10g 90% cacao (dark chocolate)
Preheat your oven to 350c, or gas mark 4. Line a couple of round cake tins with parchment paper, nicely greased with coconut oil.

Onto the messy stuff: mix your eggs with the milk, coconut oil (I heated mine so it resembled liquid oil), honey and vanilla extract. I did this by the power of my bare hands and a fork - feel free to use a blender (I won't judge).

In a separate bowl, mix your ground almonds, coconut flour, salt and shredded coconut. Gradually add the liquid ingredients, continually whisking to create a smooth consistency. (NOTE: This is where I thought the mixture was a little too 'liquid-y', thus the extra bit of added coconut flour. The batter afterwards resembled something like the consistency of runny porridge. TOP TIP: use your baker's instinct, and you'll probs get it bang on).

Pour into your baking trays and place into your oven - bake for 30 minutes. I used this waiting time wisely, exercising in the living room...yes, at 12.30am. Wild, I know. You can do the same, or you could prepare your frosting - probably the better and more desirable option of the two.

So, for the frosting; simply mash up your banana as crazily as possible, then add your cocoa powder and a drizzle of honey/agave if you so wish. That's it! Yep, you still have a good 20 minutes to get on those press-ups, girl...



Once your cake layers are looking spruced up and golden on top, leave them to cook on a wire rack for a good half hour, before spreading the banana-choc frosting on the top of one layer. Place the other layer on top, and you've almost make a cake! The all-important bit is how to decorate the top. You can make some more frosting, but I simply chopped up another, less ripened banana into coins and artfully placed them to cover the cake top. Finally, a drizzle of melted 90% dark chocolate was the icing on the cake (metaphorical and literal), plus an added grated dusting of it as a finishing touch.

I can confirm that this cake went down a treat today. It's light, fluffy in texture, flavoursome, bursting full with goodness, and most definitely hit the spot on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Did you treat your Mum to any tasty culinary delights today? Share your recipes with me, I'd love to find out!

Black Bean Chocolate Cookies

Yes, that's right...I am still on the black bean hype. What can I say; I had leftover beans, so I had to use them up somehow - and what better way than a batch of fresh chocolate cookies?



I found the recipe from Eliza's blog over at Eliza's Edibles, and just had to try it for myself (despite adapting the ingredients somewhat) using all the leftovers of my chocolate cake from the day before - the ingredients being:

200g black beans
4 tablespoons almond milk (the original recipe suggest 2T - I had to add more due to the dry consistency of my batter)
1.5 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons coconut oil (Eliza used olive oil - perhaps this is why my consistency wasn't quite right)
1 tablespoon coconut flour (Again, Eliza used 3T wholewheat flour - so my recipe could be considered faulty on various levels. However, the internet informed me that coconut flour is more absorbent in comparison, thus you should divide the original measurement by 3 if you're subbing it for normal, wheat-based flour. And I trust the internet more than my own judgement, obviously)
2 tablespoons agave nectar (same thing again; she used 1/2 cup plus 1T sugar. I'm anti-sugar... thus agave)
1 teaspoon baking powder (nothing has changed here. Did wonder why there were no eggs in original recipe if there's baking powder? Is that a stupid query? I don't understand baking)
Half a vanilla pod (or 1t. vanilla essence, pick as you choose)
Pinch cinnamon
Pinch salt
30g dark chocolate chips (90%, the Lindt stuff as per)

I will say this now: the food processing trick absolutely failed me this time. I don't know what happened, but save to say I was pretty disappointed after the triumph of using it the day previously. Lesson has been learnt; don't always trust the food processor, and a bit of elbow grease is sometimes the best way to do things, even in 2013.

You can choose the food processor option as your own risk - it took a lot of shaking (the blender, I mean. Despite my fury, I was not physically shaking) and forking to get the batter looking a little less... bean-y. I blended everything at once (except the dark chocolate chips - another error of my ways, probably.



Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6 (erm, 375C?) line your baking tray, grease with oil and chop up your dark chocolate into random sized chunks. The consistency of your batter should be stodgy-dodgy enough to roll into balls (I managed to get 16 out of the mixture) and place on your baking tray with no risk of sloppy-ness. Chuck in your chocolate chunks with fairness to each and every cookie, and place into the oven for 15 minutes - though mine were in a little longer as they were too soft for my liking. Even so, they crisp up considerably once left to cool.



And there we have it; a batch of happy, gooey, healthy chocolate chip cookies, perfect as a supper treat with a cup of milky tea or a glass of delicious almond milk. Me and baking have a love-hate relationship at the moment - it's all a bit new and exciting and weird, to be honest, not to mention a rather 'trial and error'..especially when I decide to change 80% of the original recipe's ingredient list. All in a day's work. Do you have any recommended baking recipes, or even any tips or trick of the trade to share?

Chocolate Cake with a Twist (Secret Ingredient!)

In my eyes (and stomach), there's nothing better than discovering 'secret' key ingredients that can be substituted in for all the bad stuff in classic baking recipes. And, on this occasion, I'm talking about the classic chocolate cake, no less. Guys and girls, take note - I can guarantee you'll be wanting a taste of this good stuff by the end of my chit-chat (not by my skills in the power of written persuasion, either - solely by the mere irresistibility of this cake. Trust me).

The secret power ingredient of this cake is the simple black bean. Well, many simple black beans - 240 grams, to be exact. Now, don't be put-off! The beauty of the black bean is down to their rather bland taste (no offence, black beans. We know you're out to cause no harm) - and yet, they're packed full with fibre and protein, all the while being fairly low-cal and nutrient-dense.



Who'd have thought it, eh? At last, we're appreciating beans in their original, sauceless form (Heinz, begone with you). And, before I get too carried away, the credit for this recipe goes out to Josephine of A Tasty Love Story. This is a brilliant blog with an array of similarly delicious recipes to try out - all masterfully photographed, too - definitely one worth adding to the reading list!

So, without further ado, along with the beans (I repeat: 240 grams, cooked beans - the italics are just there to clarify for those worst at baking than myself, not to seem massively patronising or anything), this recipe calls for:

3 medium/large eggs,
3 heaped tablespoons unsweetened cacao powder,
1 tablespoon instant coffee (optional, but a good one - especially for the coffee-fanatics among us),
the teeny beans of half a vanilla pod,
1 teaspoon baking soda (NOT to be confused with baking powder! A difference partially understood after a lot of confusion and a phone call to Mum being made),
the juice and zest of 1/2 orange (or 1 clementine, in my case),
a pinch of salt,
100g demerara sugar (I guess you could say this is the 'worst' ingredient in the recipe. If you dare, you could sub it for agave nectar, honey, or any other kind of natural sweetener you can think of. However, in my opinion, I think this cake calls for the sugar, plain and simple. It's not an awful lot if you divide it by portion size, either).
PLUS! Not forgetting 30 grams of dark 90% Lindt chocolate (my preference).

Another new discovery as a result of this recipe was the use of the blender in place of the (practically ancient, now I come to think about it) technique of hard-graft and a wooden spoon. It saved me a whole lot of hassle, needless to say. The hardest part of the making of this was in fact, the beans - which required tender loving care and attention in the form of 12+ hours of soaking, bath time (overnight), a good rinse over, then 10 minutes boiling time, followed by a whopping 40 minutes on the simmer! Divas or what?

Whiz (or whaz, in the words of Jamie Oliver. A phrase that, might I add, does tend to grate on me somewhat) up the eggs, cacao powder, beans, baking soda, coffee, vanilla beans, orange zest and juice, salt and sugar - and you're so almost there.

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4 (175C? I hate looking up conversion rates. Seriously. You'll have to double-check me if you're really worried) and line a loaf tin with greased parchment paper. I used coconut oil to grease mine as I'm super cool and healthy and the like (I seem to be getting more sarcastic as I go, here. For that I'm really sorry. These are not my true colours. I'm just tired).

Nearly there. Chop up your dark chocolate however you like. I went for a scraping approach that called for a fair few spectators, and a very furrowed brow - the latter mainly down to pure concentration, because I tend to hover on the cautious side of events wherever knives are involved. You wouldn't blame me if you knew how clumsy I can be (my boyfriend can concur with that one).

Pour your lovely chocolatey liquid blend into the lined tin and sprinkle your dark chocolate on top. If you like, you can poke the chocolate into the mixture a bit, but I left it as it was on the top. Delicious. Cook for 35 minutes, and leave to cool. This makes a smashing Saturday night pudding combined with a dollop of greek yoghurt and blueberries - yum. It was still slightly warm when we had it, but as the original recipe goes, it tastes just as good (if not better - time will tell) eaten straight from the fridge.



Moral of the story? One: don't judge beans unfairly. And two: this cake will make your life approximately 23% more complete. Which is a fairly worthy percentage increase, wouldn't you agree? PS. When divided into ten slices, each slice is 100 calories - and seriously low-fat.

Seriously, though - please let me know your opinions if (or should I say when?) you try this. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Alternatively, has anyone any other 'secret' baking ingredients worthy of hollering about?

Kale Blend

Ah, Kale. My new fave.

Following from the whole kale/carrot crisp escapade, I decided to use up the leftovers of my kale in a delicious smoothie blend. This was the (very green pigmented) outcome.




Ingredients for one large glass:

1 Banana
A few handfuls of Kale (more leaves, less of the stalk)
Juice of 1 lemon
150-200ml almond milk
100ml water
1 tbsp manuka honey (to sweeten)

Some experimentation was necessary to get the mixture to the desired sweetness, but the whole lemon did the trick. I enjoyed this as a lunch replacement smoothie because I was in a rush before work - luckily for me, it satisfied my appetite until dinnertime. However, there's not a great deal of protein in the mix so if you were looking for something a bit more substantial, I'd suggest adding a scoop of protein powder (something fairly neutral in flavour, like vanilla) or the addition of ground almonds (or a spoonful of peanut butter if you fancy).

Ultimately, this is packed full of energy and nutrients, which is why it can be suited for meal replacement purposes. Kale is big in the game of detox/cleansing smoothies - so the more the merrier, I say. Happy slurping!

Vegetable Crisps for Saintly Snacking!

Hello!

I've been dying to make my own homemade vegetable crisps for quite a while now, after seeing similar recipes countless of times over the internet (I probably stalk too many health/fitness blogs for my own good). Today was the day granting my wish to put my extremely limited culinary 'skills' to the test. Not that these recipes require any cooking skills whatsoever, mind you - I think even a 3 year old could manage to make these.



So I began with the kale crisps - I rinsed the curly kale (one large pack cost me £1.25 in Tesco, so pretty inexpensive) in water and dried it slightly with paper towels. Apparently it's better to bake kale when the leaves are dry - don't ask me, I'm no kale expert myself (this is in fact the first time I've ever cooked or tasted kale! What a deprived life I've lived so far, huh?). I then spread out the kale on a foil-lined baking tray and drizzled around 1tbsp of Olive Oil on to the whole lot - followed by a dusting of salt (Himalayan sea salt, no doubt) and pepper. Et Voila - in the oven they go, bake for around 12 minutes at 400C/gas mark 6 for my old school oven.

In the meantime I decided to prep my carrots by washing them and cutting the tops and tails off. Now FINELY slice your carrots (I used two large carrots and that was enough for one tray's worth of crisps - do more if you wish, but you'll need to prepare a couple of baking trays so they're evenly spread). And when I say FINELY in caps locks...well, you know what you need to do.

Melt 1tbsp coconut oil in the microwave for a minute, and mix half a teaspoon plus a teaspoon of cinnamon powder separately. Mix your very finely chopped slices of carrot with the oil and spread evenly on to the baking tray, then dust with your mix of salt and cinnamon. By the time you're finished your kale should be nice and crispy, so replace them with the carrots and bake them for 20 minutes (or more depending on how good you were at chopping - I did a poor job and it meant my carrots didn't crisp as well as I'd hoped even after 30 minutes of baking. Apart from a few that were literally BURNT to a crisp. Not to worry, I ate them anyway).



And there you have it - delicious and moreish snacks to devour tonight in front of the telly-box with an alcoholic beverage or two. Beats Walkers hands-down, right? (don't be giving me that look - yeeeah I saw you!).

FYI: Kale is another amazing source of magnesium that you absolutely need to integrate into your diet, along with dark, high-quality cacao (see previous post!). If you didn't know already, our cardiovascular system, digestive system, nervous system, muscles, kidneys, liver, hormone-secreting glands, and even our brains all rely on magnesium for their basic metabolic functioning. It's a pretty cool mineral, you know.

Seriously - who ever said healthy food had to be boring? Pass this recipe along and join the buzz for healthy snacking! It's what 2013 is all about.

A Low-down on Flavonoids

I like to back up my copious tea and coffee guzzling ways with the cold-hard facts that prove I'm not merely addicted to caffeine - I'm just getting my daily quota of Flavonoids, doncha know? Not addicted in the slightest. Ahem.

So what are Flavonoids, exactly? You might've heard the word being flung around before, perhaps mistaking it for some kind of gum of sort (it does sound like chewing gum, no?). Flavonoids are actually the substances found in virtually all plants; there are around 6,000 varieties, all responsible for many of our plant's beautifully vibrant pigments.

There are plenty of variants, which makes the chemistry of flavonoids pretty complex. They can be separated by groups, including flavonols, dihydroflavonols, flavones, isoflavones, flavanones, anthocyanins, and anthocyanidins. Within each of these groups fall hundreds, and sometimes thousands of different flavonoids.

Well-known flavonols include quercetin, rutin, and hesperidin, while well-known flavones include apigenin and luteolin. Flavonoids may also be named directly after the unique plant that contains them. But if you're anything like me, then all of these wordy words are probably getting the better of you - really, you just wanna know why these flavonoids are good for you and what foods you can source them from.

Virtually all fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices contain flavonoids. Generally speaking, the more colourful components of the food - like the skin - contain the highest concentration of flavonoids. One exception is the white pulp inside oranges - unlike the Vitamin C drenched segments, the orange's flavonoids are found in the white pulpy portion inside the skin and surrounding the sections - a reason why you should've always listened to your Mum telling you to eat the 'pith' (I never did). Green tea has probably the strongest amount of flavonoids, components called catechins that may reach 1,000 mg (or 1g) per cup! These flavonoids, sourced from the Camellia sinensis plant, are also abundantly present in the traditional 'black' breakfast tea - score!

Most flavonoids function in the human body as antioxidants - in the oriental countries, they are even seen as a medicinal substance, and rightly so. Ultimately, they work to protect the body, helping to neutralize overly reactive oxygen-containing molecules and prevent them from damaging parts of cells. They support the regulation of Vitamin C, a vitamin essential in fighting off colds and flu, thus supporting the immune system immensely.

Prevention of excessive inflammation appears to be another key role played by many different chemical categories of flavonoids, as well as disrupting the function of microorganisms like viruses or bacteria - again, basically the best natural source of antibiotics known to man. They promote healthy arteries, as well as helping to fight the ageing process (again enacted by the prevention and repair of cellular damage).

More sources of flavonoids include apples, apricots, blueberries, pears, raspberries, strawberries, black beans, cabbage, onions, parsley, pinto beans, and tomatoes. All the more reason to stop snacking on processed foods, and instead feeding your body with all of the stuff that it really craves - and which mostly tastes awesome, too. You simply cannot deny the power of these Flavonoids, there's no stopping them!

Um...so is it time for a tea yet? Yeaaah why the heck not! Refilling my Kate mug like nobodies business today - with no shame whatsoever. Question is, will I ever be able to forgo my teaspoon of sugar? Debatable.

How many tea's do you drink a day? I think I'm easily onto 4 per day - a combination of the onset of home life, plus dealing with the harsh, cold onslaught of winter (and snow). Well, that's my excuse, at least.