Tropical banana & coconut milk eggless muffins

These are really light and healthy tropical muffins. I'd definitely add in some pineapple next time, I'm thinking Pina colada style. "Yes I like Pina coladaaaaaass...."

 If you do use a gluten free flour such as rice or cassava, always mix it up with another type, if not just go for 100% whole wheat flour.

TROPICAL BANANA & COCONUT MILK EGGLESS MUFFINS

• 3 bananas
• small can of coconut milk (165ml) 
• 3 tbsp honey
• vanilla extract (I used a pod as well)
• 120 g flour ( you can play around with a mix, I used 50 g oat flour, 50 g cassava and 20 g rice flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 baking soda

1. Mash up the bananas, add in the coconut milk, honey and vanilla and stir until well combined.
2. Fold in the dry ingredients until you obtain a smooth batter, making sure not to over mix.
3. Pour into muffin cases and bake for 15- 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

 

Xx

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Chocolate beetroot cake

Friday night was lovely, I met lots of my high school friends, we stayed on for drinks at Suffren which turned out to be an interesting night! With about 4 hours sleep, I then went on a beautiful hike up Mt Piton, the picture really does not do justice to how beautiful the view really was!

 This makes a lovely light and spongy cake, with a mild beetroot taste. This gluten free dark chocolate cake with earthy undertones is perfect along side a big glass of milk or some frozen yogurt! To make it more indulgent, I would definitely cover this in melted chocolate or chocolate ganache, which will also compliment the earthy tones, nom nom nom!!

CHOCOLATE BEETROOT CAKE

• 60 g dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 150 g beetroot purée
• 4 tbsp of honey (or more according to your liking- try the batter)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp cocoa, sifted
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 60 g ground almond
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp baking soda

1. Melt the chocolate and olive oil either in a microwave (on high for 30 seconds, stir, and melt for another 20-30 seconds. Make sure not to burn the chocolate!) or on a bain-marie.
2. Mix the purée with the honey, beat in the eggs,cocoa, salt and vanilla until well combined. Combine in the cooled chocolate mixture.
3. Fold in the almond powder, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Pour into a well greased and floured baking tin and bake at 180 degrees (preheated oven) for 30 minutes. If you are making a larger cake, after about 30 minutes poke a toothpick at the centre of the cake and if it doesn't come out clean, leave in for a couple more minutes.

 

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Body realignment session

Ahhh I'm so sore and achy everywhere! Feels like I'm going through a sort of detox phase, however my lower back and neck pains that I've been suffering from for quite awhile have all dissapeared.
I had a body realignment session at the School of Movement this morning, the session is based on the Feldenkrais method, which is a somatic educational system which focuses on body movements and functioning. Apart from the physical improvements, I'm baffled at how Natasha (the practitioner), could tell so much about me as a person and my personality by only touching my head, pretty scary stuff!

So basically, after the session, I was told that my muscles and joints are unusually elastic, also known as 'hyperlaxity'. Most people's are made up of about 50% elastic capacity and 50% tonus, however mine are at about 70% elasticity and 30 % tonus, thus explaining why although I was doing a proper full on weight lifting routine 6 days a week I've hardly been seeing any results :(. Boohoo I'm pretty bummed about not being able to weight lift as much anymore, but I guess it does depend on the person's body type and functioning as to what exercises he/she is best suited to.

Due to very low pancreatic enzymes, which help break down fats, proteins and carbohydrates, normal digestion cannot occur which also means that I am deficient in quite a few of the essential nutrients. I have now been prescribed a few natural supplements to take as well as exercises for a 6 week time frame.

Pretty excited to see the results after this 6 week period, but also a bit frustrated at all the time 'wasted' weight lifting etc. Bring on the pilates, yoga, swimming etc!
Anyways, we'll see how it goes:)

Xx

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Beetroot burgers

Don't let the sound of these put you off- they are D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!! Not only are they of a beautiful ruby colour (I really want to organise a Barbie theme party for some little kids with all this hot pink coloured food!) , but they taste really meaty and are super filling! My maid couldn't believe that there was no meat involved!

These burgers are really simple to make, I baked mine but you could also pan fry them, and also freeze them once cooked to enjoy later on. I used both lentils and chickpeas in mine, but you can just use one type or try playing around by substituting with quinoa, brown rice etc.

BEETROOT BURGERS
Makes about 12 medium burgers
These are free from eggs and meat- except for 2-3 anchovies which can be omitted. If you are using 150 g of one type of grain- try to mash half of it up, just so that it all binds together nicely.

• 75 g cooked lentils (I used red)
• 75 g lightly mashed cooked chickpeas
• Approx 180 g grated beetroot (about half of a large one)
• 2 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 heaped tsp mustard
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• A couple of celery stalks, finely chopped (optional)
• 2-3 anchovies, (optional)
• 0.5 tsp of paprika
• Salt & pepper
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 40 g oat flour (grind up some oats), could substitute with whole wheat flour

1. In a saucepan, fry the onion, celery and anchovy together until the onions are cooked through. Anchovies sound a bit odd in this, but I watched this on some cooking show and they do add great depth to a lot of recipes and leave no fishy taste at all!
2. In a large bowl, combine the beetroot, pulses, chickpeas, fried onion mix and seasoning. Once nicely combined, add in the oat flour and olive oil until all of the flour is absorbed. Leave this mix in the fridge for at least 10 minutes before baking.
3. Use your hands to form burger-shaped patties. Bake the burgers for about 10 minutes on each side (total 20 mins) at 180 degrees Celsius on a non-stick sheet or pan fry on a low heat until golden brown. I had mine topped with halloumi- nom nom nom!

OMG- Obi is a proper little monster now, not going to be my cuddly lap dog for much longer :(

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Beetroot hummus

Morning:)
So it seems like I get slightly 'fixated' on a certain veggie now and then and just make as many things as I can out of it!（awwww just got this picture in my head of me squeezing the life out of this veggie, ok I probably need to get some breakfast before I go a bit hyper!).
Last week was my pumpkin obsession and this morning was the turn of the beautiful beetroot:)

BEETROOT HUMMUS
There's no fixed amounts to this, just taste as you go along and adjust to your liking!

• 90 g beetroot purée (boil and blend up)
• 190 g chickpeas, cooked/ canned & drained
• About 2 tsps tahini ( I was out of tahini so used peanut butter instead)
• Lemon juice
• Black pepper
• Garlic
• Salt
• 2 tsp olive oil 

1. Blend all of the above together to obtain a smooth paste, adjust the amounts of lemon juice and garlic to your own taste.

How gorgeous does this look! Serve with crudités, flatbreads etc...

Coming up soon: chocolate & beetroot gluten free cake and awesome beetroot veggie burgers.

As a side note, I now have beautifully pink fingers-.-, do wear gloves if possible, especially when grating beetroot!

Xx

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New & improved CRUNCHIER granola

I cannot get enough of this stuff! It's so crunchy, satisfying and moreish! Even my parents who never used to like any type of cereal or porridge are now obsessed with this granola!

This isn't much different from my original recipe, apart from substituting the wheat bran for crushed wheat, I think Bledor have a similar product known as 'Blé concassé'. So I use a basic mix of 2 cups of oats + 1 cup crushed wheat, then add in the usual seeds, nuts etc etc. Then just follow the full recipe as shown here.

 

When I say crunchy, I mean proper crunchy:p, so if you do have some issues with your teeth, you'd probs be best sticking to the original version!
Best breakfast ever: Yogurt fruit parfait

Nothing can beat homemade granola! An easy substitute to all those sugar loaded store bought breakfast cereals and as a bonus, this smells amazinggggg as it bakes!

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Fresh tuna salad

My dad bought this big chunk of tuna 'belly' back on the weekend- the type used to make sushi, which was absolutely gorgeous! But, there is only so much sushi one can eat and make(so time consuming!), so I decided to make a delicious salad with the rest of the fillet. I only lightly seared the fish on each side, even if you aren't too fond of raw fish, do not overcook this as the lemon juice will cook the fish through as well.

FRESH TUNA SALAD

• A couple of thick tuna slices, lightly seared, cubed
• 1 large lemon
• About half a cucumber, finely diced
• 1 firm tomato, finely diced
• Lots of coriander
• 0.5-1 avocado, cubed
• Olive oil
• Black pepper
• Salt

1. Mix all your ingredients together, taste as you go along and adjust your quantities of lemon juice and seasoning. You could easily add in some cooked quinoa/ couscous to make this a bit more filling.

Enjoy! Xx

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