Protein PB & Banana Chocolate Chip Blondie

 

I have always had a sweet tooth, especially after eating something savory! I always crave something sweet with a green tea in the afternoon when energy levels start to drop. I tend to pick at a cube or two of 70% Dark Chocolate or even some fruit to carb my cravings but even try to keep this to a minimum!

When I am not being uber strict, but don’t want to go all out on a sugar filled treat, I make this little beauty to snack on. This blondie is packed with protein and natural sugars and is so so tasty! A great pre-workout snack or morning/afternoon boost!

Now I know you are sure to read the ingredients to this recipe and think “Chickpeas don’t go in a cake?!” but,I hand on heart PROMISE you will fall in love with this one and you can rest assured it doesn’t taste like chickpeas!

What you will need:

• 1 can  chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup all natural crunchy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup pure natural honey
• 2 medium ripe banana
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup (about 1 scoop) unflavored or vanilla protein powder (I used Vanilla)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips (70% coaco)

Get baking!

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and grease either a loaf tray or a 8×8 baking tray. Blend all your ingredients together (minus the chocolate chips) in a food processor and blend until the batter is smooth. Fold in 1/2 of the chopped chocolate. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan then sprinkle the rest of the chopped chocolate on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and edges are a tiny bit brown. The batter may look underdone, and seem dough like but  it will set like a cake! Also you don’t want them to dry out which can happen if it is overcooked!

Once cooked cool pan for 10 minutes on wire rack. Should make around 12 blondies! These can be stored in the fridge and will last about 3 days. I sometimes cut them up and freeze them. They can be frozen for up to 3 months! However, I am lucky if they last 3 days in my house! Addictive is not the word!

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Paleo Carrot, Walnut and Cinnamon Cake with Lemon Glaze

I am slightly anaemic, but admittedly TERRIBLE at taking my Vitamin C  tablets together with my Iron tablets. I always remember to take one, but not the other, if any at all! My diet is already pretty high in Iron so I am making a conscious effort to eat more foods that are high in Vitamin C! Carrots are very high in Vit C AND Iron, not to mention all the other nutritional benefits you get from eating them! I absolutely LOVE carrot and ginger juice, I always order the Zinger when choosing a fresh juice at a cafe, it is just so refreshing!  I started making them more at home and on my last food shop I stocked up the fridge with so many carrots, it actually felt like I had a never ending stock!

With a million carrots to use up I decided to get my bake onnnn! Because, well, do I actually need to justify my reasons to bake a cake?! Especially when it is a guilt free cake?! This is certainly one for you Paleo worshipers… You can thank me later!

What you will need!

For the cake:

1 cup coconut flour
1 cup raw honey
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
8 eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut shavings
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups shredded carrots (approx 4 carrots)
1/3 cup diced walnuts (optional but great for added crunch)

For the glaze-
2 tablespoons coconut oil, softened
2 tablespoons raw honey
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
zest of half a lemon
pinch of sea salt

Get baking!

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and generously grease your pan with coconut oil. (If you’re using 9-inch cake pans, use parchment paper instead for easier removal.) To prepare the cake, combine the coconut flour, honey, coconut oil, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, lemon juice and baking soda, and mix well to create the batter. If any of your ingredients are cold the mixture may be thicker than traditional cake batter, but don’t worry, it will still bake just fine! Once the batter is done, stir in the shredded carrots, and walnuts (if using).
Bake for 35-40 minutes
Cool for 20 minutes before adding the glaze!

Whilst your cake is cooking you can quickly whip up the lemon glaze. Simply mix all ingredients in a bowl until a smooth and creamy texture is formed. Spread on top of cake once cooled then add chopped walnuts and pumpkin seeds on top!
Now the most important part, make a cup of coffee/green tea, cut a big slice, put your feet up and prepare to get CAKED!

Blueberry and Crunchy Peanut butter Pancakes topped with my homemade Rawtella and Berries

OK, OK, I know what you are thinking, how can something that looks THAT calorific be good for me?! I’m just asking that you please trust me on this one and believe me when I say they tasted as amazing as they look!

These babies were welcomed with open arms (or should I say mouths?) and have definitely made it into my top 3 favorite pancake recipes of all time… Big statement I know, but so worthy of the title!

It was Pancake Day so in dedication to this great celebration, my housemate and I decided to skip on the main course and share a stack of Pancakes instead!

I will be completely honest in saying this recipe was totally unplanned…. So I had no idea how they would turn out! I decided to add the peanut butter to the pancake mix last minute and was pleasantly surprised when they came out all fluffy and insanely tasty!

Here is what you will need:

Pancake Mix-

¼ cup coconut flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons your favorite natural crunchy nut butter of choice (I like peanut or almond butter- Can be optional if you are looking for a Paleo friendly pancake)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
½ tablespoon honey
½ cup Almond milk- Unsweetened
2/3 cup fresh blueberries

For topping-
Spoonful of Rawtella (recipe can be found in the ‘Sweet Nothings’ category!)
¼ cup pure honey
Strawberries and blueberries

Get flipping!

Mix the coconut flour and baking soda separately. Put together all the other ingredients in a seperate bowl and mix. Add to the dry mix until pancake like mixture forms- if you find it too thick add more almond milk!
Heat some coconut oil in a pan, add batter and flip after 2-3 minutes.

*Pssst! I used mini pancake pans to form the thick American style pancakes! These can be achievable in a usual pan but a little trickier to form.

No crepe these were flipping amazing!!! (Excuse the pun) 

Banana and Mixed Berry Smoothie Bowl, topped with ‘Rawnola’

It was day 6 in the gym for me this morning, my body was aching, but not in a painful “I can’t move” way.. It was more like the “I feel great!” achy way! I was staaaaarving after that cardio and core workout out but eggs just wouldn’t do this morning, I needed comfort! And this was like receiving a cuddle off your Mum… It’s a whole lotta goodness in one bowl let me tell you 💜

 

Banana and mixed berry smoothie bowl made with almond milk then topped with homemade “rawnola” and fruit. My belly is extremely content right now!

What you will need-

Smoothie bowl ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries
• 1 large banana (leave a quarter to one side for the topping)
• 250ml of sugar free natural almond milk
• 1/4 cup of Chia Seeds
• 1/3 cup of oats
• Scoop of Vanilla Protein powder (This is optional)
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Handful of fresh blueberries and chopped strawberries for the topping

Rawnola ingredients (Makes a jar full) :

• 2 cups of Oats
• 1/2 cup of Chia Seeds
• 1/3 cup of Flax seeds
• 1/4 cup of chopped almonds
• 1/4 cup of chopped hazelnuts
• 1/3 cup of Coconut flakes
• 1 Tbs of Coconut oil
• 1 Tbs of Honey

How it comes together!

Simply blend all ingredients for smoothie bowl together in a blender (Remembering  to leave a quarter banana and the fresh berries to one side). The texture should be a lot thicker than a usual smoothie you would drink! Pour into a bowl, sprinkle some rawnola on top along with the remaining fruit and dig in! Queue a happy belly!

Chilli, Ginger & Sesame Beef Stir Fry with Zoodles

I’ve actually had a social this week (go me!) resulting in me having NO time to cook, so tonight I took full advantage of no plans, wacked on my pjs and created this quick but delicious meal…. I present to you my Chilli, Ginger and Sesame Beef Stir fry with Zoodles!

Now, personally, I can live without noodles in my stir fry, BUT the one thing I can’t live without is no sauce! I mean, what is a stir fry without sauce? Reallly?!?!?

Unfortunately, like most packaged foods, the jars and sachets you get in the supermarket are packed with E numbers and sugars and all other nasty stuff, but don’t fear because I have come up with an awesome alternative so you won’t feel like you are missing out on the sauciness!

Lets get saucy!

Simply blend or add to pan whilst cooking the following ingredients:

• 1  Chilli de-seeded and chopped
• 3 teaspoons of chopped ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 Tbs of sesame oil
• 1 tbs of honey
• 1 teaspoon of ground pepper
• Pinch of salt

*Pssst! You can add more or less of certain ingredients until you get desired taste, I personally love the kick of chilli & ginger combined with the sweetness of the honey. So feel free to have a play with this one until you feel you have the acquired taste for you! You can even create the sauce while your stir fry is cooking by adding the above ingredients to the wok as you go!

For the Stir Fry

There is no right or wrong when it comes to what vegetables should go into a stir fry, I usually throw in whatever veggies I have in the fridge at the time! The ‘wing it’ approach always seems to work for me!

The contents of veggies in my fridge were just perfect and very fitting to my Thai inspired dish, here is what i threw into my wok of wonders:

• 500gr of lean beef strips (chicken or prawns would also be great for this dish)
• 1 red onion chopped
• 1/3 cup of mixed bell peppers
• 1/3 cup of courgettes/zucchini cut into chunky quaters
• 1/3 cup of chopped up egg plant
• 1/2 cup of broccoli cut up (with stems)
• 1 cup of fresh bean sprouts
• 1 cup of red cabbage
• 1/4 cup of sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons of chilli flakes (added option for those who like it hot!)
• 1 large courgette/Zucchini not chopped (This is to use later for the Zoodles)

Method:

Heat some coconut oil/olive oil in a wok add the onion, broccoli,egg plant and courgettes/zucchini for a few minutes before adding the beef. (Adding the beef too early can lead to it becoming overcooked and chewy! urgh). Add the beef, peppers and the sauce and cook for a further 4-5 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. 2-3 more minutes of cooking and you should be good to go. Serve straight out the wok and serve on top of a bed of Zoodles (See below for recipe).

*Psst! I always leave adding the cabbage, beansprouts and spinach right to the very end as I prefer a crunch to my stir fry!

Oodles of Zoodles!

All you need for this is a big courgette/zucchini and grater. It really is as simple as that!

Grate the courgette/zucchini length ways using the thicker side of the grater (to create desired “noodle” shape). Grate until you reach the core, it will usually become floppy and may even snap if over grated!

Once you have grated your zoodles heats some coconut oil in a pan and fry for 2-3 minutes seasoning with a pinch of salt and pepper! Simple as that!