Raw Coconut Macaroons

As Lynn mentioned in her post (below) I sent her some of these but was naughty and didn't include the recipe-so here it is! It's in cups as it's another American one, and I have bought myself the mini cup-measurers so I never need to translate into grams before starting a recipe again. Nice for me, but I've tried to work it out anyway so you can make these yourselves. Very coconutty and sweet, but raw, so presumably that makes them healthy-right? Either way, they are very quick to make and easy to grab as a snack when you need a "healthy" hit of sweet.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup pecan flour (or almond flour)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup raw organic honey
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Method:

1. Combine your coconut, pecan flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and mix well
2. Add in your pumpkin, honey, coconut oil, and vanilla and stir well until all ingredients have been evenly incorporated
3. Use a medium cookie scoop or tablespoon and scoop rounded balls onto a plate or cookie sheet
4. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour to solidify
5. Store in the freezer or refrigerator and serve cold

Gluten-free pecan-crusted coffee cakes

These little coffee cake bites (without any coffee-don't ask!) are super easy to make and healthy! They are from an American website called Damy health which has lots of great allergen-free recipes to go with a diet and fitness plan you (presumably) have to pay quite a lot to take part in. So I focus on the free recipes, and I loved how these turned out, really gooey and sweet-the perfect treat to go with a cuppa (tea or coffee) I think. 

I made them for my Foodie Penpal this month, who was Joan, who requested healthy treats which is really what I am after too. They have kept well (we are still eating them at home) so I hope they reached her ok - it's hard to know what to send through the post!

So, here's how you do it:

Prep time: 7 Minutes, Cook time: 12-14 Minutes. Makes 12 large or 24 small Cakes (depending on size of the muffin tray)

 Ingredients:

225g Cooked Quinoa

180g Soft Pitted Dates, finely chopped

2 Tsp Cinnamon

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

2 Tbsp Coconut Oil

2 Egg Whites

30g Ground almonds

2 Tbsp Agave Nectar

Topping Ingredients:

50g Pecans (Crushed)

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1 Tbsp Agave Nectar

1 Tbsp Coconut Oil  

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 220c

  2. Place your topping ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

  3. Place all coffee cake ingredients into afood processor and blend until smooth stopping to scrape down the  sides.

  4. Spray your mini muffin tin with a non-stick healthy cooking spray e.g. fry-light.

  5. Scoop batter into each muffin tin filling to just above half-way.

  6. Top batter evenly with mixed topping ingredients.

  7. Place in the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes.

  8. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

  9. Remove from tin and try and restrain yourself to one at a time enjoy!

     Nutritional Content: (based on 12 cakes)

Kcals: 139 Carbs: 20g Fat: 6g Protein: 3g

Peanut butter choc chip cookie dough bites

This recipe is from Erin's website Texanerin and I came across it after a naughty friend of mine pinned it onto pinterest. It's a grain-free recipe and has no sugar, so fits my current bill in terms of being loosely "healthy". Well, they don't taste healthy, but since the main ingredient is chickpeas (yeah, weird right?) I guess they sort of are. It makes for a bit of a wet texture, but I am seriously impressed with the finished results-they taste amazing! Melty choc chips and a good kick of peanut butter mean you don't really notice they have chickpeas in them. The recipe makes around 14 mini bites, but I think I might eat them all in one go. Only kidding, but they are good.

Ingredients
140g can of chick peas, drained and patted dry (don't throw them into the sink like I did)
2 tsps vanilla extract
165g natural peanut butter (or thereabouts-this seems like a lot to me, and I LIKE peanut butter) 
1tsp baking powder (I used bicarb, it turned out fine)
90g dark choc chips (I used Waitrose cooks essentials-pretty yum)
3 tbsp agave (Erin uses honey but agave seemed healthier) 

Method
Preheat your oven to  175°C. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they're combined. Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky. With wet hands, form into 1 1/2" balls. Place onto a piece of parchment paper. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don't do much rising. Bake for about 10-15 minutes. Yields about fourteen 1 1/2" cookie dough balls.

My obsession with Fro Yo

My first taste of frozen yoghurt, or Fro Yo as I like to call it, was in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I wanted to shout out to the entirety of Chinatown "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE" although my fear of getting arrested in foreign countries prevented me. The OH and I fought of the creamy, swirly dessert, which we'd topped with goodness knows what. Probably, knowing us, a heap of nuts, something that looks a bit healthy like blueberries and then a shed load of caramel sauce. I blame him. Anyway, when I realised that a sex shop in Islington had been turned into a similar-style fro yo bar I had to check it out. The style of fro yo parlour is important, because it's better to be able to help yourself and pay by weight (although this can be frightening-take a credit card) than to have to ask a server for a flavour and then each item you want to add. I find this way more intimidating, and also am scared to ask for too many things in case they start to wonder why you've bothered to go for the "healthy" option of fro yo when you want to add any combination of: chocolate, chocolate, nuts, syrup, maybe some more, ummm, chocolate...

Samba Swirl is great. It let's you choose what you want, mix up different flavours. You can even have the person at the counter stick your creation in some sort of tardis and swirl it all together. I think the man who set the business up has started to think i'm stalking him on Twitter, so I've stopped asking him for peanut butter-related items now. Sad face.

There's not a lot fro yo can't make better. It tastes bad (as in naughty), but they tell me it's good (ok, so clearly not the bits of flake the I'vegone for in this pic on the right) and almost fat free. Samba Swirl do some great flavours, including Dulce de Lece (Argentinian caramel-lush), Peanut Butter and High Road Chocolate which tastes just about as rich and yummy as it sounds.

Kids love fro yo too, which is a shame because it means I can't get my fix quick enough during school holidays or between about 3.30pm and 5pm when they leave school. Huh.

My advice-get thee to a fro yo bar neat you pronto. But don't get in my way ;)

Healthy Chocolate Tart

Here is my healthy chocolate tart-well, the meagre remains of it, since I'm so lazy I didn't get around to a) putting it on a plate and b) taking a photo of it just after I made it. It's a refrigerator cake, so you don't get that "bing, it's done" moment, which is the point where I'd be wanting to grab a camera. Still, it was my first attempt for a while at something healthy and although fairly labour-intensive it was quite satisfying as a chocolatey culmination to a meal. It lasted me so long I was kind of bored by the end, and was mashing it up with 0% fat greek yoghurt and peanut butter (which would be the key ingredient I'd try and amalgamate into the recipe next time).

The recipe was at the back of Zest magazine (so healthy, me) and is taken from the The Guilt-Free Gourmet  which I have subsequently ordered-excited much? I did amend the recipe slightly, as I couldn't find any date syrup or carob powder (I used more agave syrup and cocoa powder instead) and also I felt the ingredients were getting a bit too expensive (and when am I going to use date syrup again?)

The healthy bit is that it's pretty much free from everything: dairy, wheat, sugar. It's totally vegan and the crushed up oat cakes in the base (along with pecans) are about as naughty as it gets. I put the recipe as I made it into My Fitness Pal and it came out at 4000kcals for the whole lot, which I thought was loads until I worked out that it could serve around 14-16 people. Well, maybe not according to my OH, but 16 versions of me, anyway. Divided by 16 made each portion 253 kcals and 3 grams of protein, so not too bad. The avocados in the topping give it a lot of calories, but add "healthy" fats. I've not noticed my hair becoming shinier since consuming the entire thing, but give it time.

The recipe:
For the base
150g pecans
125g oat cakes
1tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp agave syrup
2tbsp coconut oil
3 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

For the topping
3 avocados
6 tbsp cocoa powder (or 5 cocoa, 1 carob)
9 tbsp agave syrup (or 6 agave, 3 date syrip)
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp coconut oil

Top with shavings of dark chocolate if desired (I did not desire this!)

Method

Toast the pecans then crush them with the oatcakes. Blend with the dates (chopped and pitted), 3 tsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 2 tbsp agave, 2 tbsp coconut oil (you might need to melt this) until fine. Press into the base of a lined 20" springform cake tin and refrigerate for 30 mins until set.

Meanwhile, blend the flesh of 3 avocados with 9 tbsp agave, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 6 tbsp cocoa powder and 4 tbsp coconut oil (melt in a  pan first) until smooth. smoother on top of the base and refrigerate for another  2 hours. Shave extra chocolate on top if desired.