Green Smoothies and Hemp Truffles

About a fortnight ago when we got our first taste of spring , I felt inspired and energised to be healthier. While the weather quickly went back to being miserable with only a few good days inbetween. I've kept up some good habits. I'm still eating some junk particularly at the potluck yesterday but I feel that at least I start the days on a good start by having a green smoothie for breakfast. I started out with:

Classic Green Smoothie from Oh She Glows:

Yield: 1 serving/2 cups
Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond milk, or milk of choice
• 1 ripe banana, preferably peeled + frozen
• 2 handfuls organic spinach or 1 handful kale
• 1 tbsp chia seeds OR 1 tbsp ground flax
• 1 tbsp nut butter, optional
• 1-3 ice cubes
• protein powder of choice, optional

Directions: Starting with the liquid, add in 1 cup of milk of your choice. Now add in the chia or flax and nut butter. Next, add in the spinach followed by the banana on top. Blend until smooth. Add in your ice cubes and blend some more. Serves 1- about 2 cups.

This was great, I skipped the ice and the protein powder. You can't taste the baby spinach at all, so its a great way to start. It didn't quite fill me up.  But I've found that if I increase almond milk to about 1&1/4 cup and increase the seeds or nut butter slightly then I'm right to lunch time.

I've slowly been making more adaptions using frozen bluberries, cherries, raspberries and using kale and boy choy (yes sounds gross but again can't taste it), I've also used hemp seeds too.

I'm not a morning person at all, so I put it in my klean canteen bottle and drink it on the way to work. Be warned if you do this to rinse it out straight away. I once left my bottle dirty until I got home which was a big mistake-smell wise. I do need to floss at work now though unless I start getting up earlier and having it at home.

I recently bought some hemp seeds which are supposadly good for you. I'm always suck a sucker for the latest 'superfood'.  This US study suggests a range of benefits like high in omega 3 and 6, and may lower cholestrol and blood pressure. They are actually legal to eat everywhere except for australia and new zealand. So they are sold as a skincare product in some larger health food stores. See below:

I'm also been making a few different versions of these raw truffles so if I do get hungry before lunch I eat a couple. This is my favourite, its slightly sweet and Toby who hates these sort of raw snacks loves these (and not just for the high protein).

Hemp Truffles adapted from the raw project

• 1 cups shelled hemp seeds
• 1/2 cup chia seeds
• 2 tbsp. almond butter
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/8 cup cacao powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup

Place hemp seeds, chia seeds, almond butter, cacao powder, and salt into a food processor and process until well blended. While processing, feed in pitted dates and process until the mixture is well blended and clumping. Add in vanilla and maple syrup. Roll mixture into small, quarter-sized balls and enjoy. Makes about 15 balls.

 I love these type of recipes, if you have any similar recipes please let me know.

They both may look gross but taste great!

Raw Cherry Bombs- Vegan Mofo Day 26

 This week friends Lidia and Lachie had us over for dinner and I agreed to bring desserts. I know Lidia is into healthy food, so decided to make another raw dessert. This was perfect as we had everything already and it was pretty quick and easy. I was a bit disappointed initially that the filling wasn't sweet enough, so I rolled the balls in coconut sugar. I'm obsessed with that stuff and also don't know what else to do with it, any suggestions?

But after a few bites, I started to enjoy them, they have quite a strong coconut flavour from the oil and both Lachie and Lidia enjoyed them. Toby said he enjoyed them more than the cake pops but I'm not so sure. I wanted to make these into cake pops but it didn't work due to the cherry in the middle, also the mixture falls apart quite easily so stick to small bites.

Raw Cherry Bombs from Bakery Manis

1 cup Brazil nuts 1 cup cashews
1 Tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp non-alcohol vanilla extract
1 tsp + 2 tsp agave, divided
pinch sea salt
½ cup dried cherries
1/3 cup raw cacao butter, chopped
1/3 cup raw cacao powder

1. Grind the Brazil nuts cashews in the processor until sandy textured. Add in coconut oil, vanilla, 1 tsp agave, and salt.  Blend until smooth like a nut butter; add a few dashes of oil if it seems dry.
2. Scrape from the bowl and shape into nickel-sized (1cm) balls. Squish a dried cherry into each ball.  Freeze for half hour.
3. Chop the cacao butter carefully and add to a large glass bowl.
4. Boil a saucepan of water, and place the bowl over the hot water until cacao butter melts completel.
5. Gently stir in the cacao powder and 2 tsp agave and whisk until smooth. Let cool.
6. Line a plate or baking sheet with waxed or parchment paper. Dip each nut-cherry ball gently into the chocolate, covering entirely.  Freeze to set the chocolate, about 20 minutes. Store in the fridge.

 

2 Ingredient Chocolate Chia Pudding

Yes this only requires chia seeds and choc soy milk. We are obsessed with vitasoy chocolate milk at the moment and I figured this was probably a healthier way to consume it.

Chocolate Chia Pudding from Foods for Life

[serves 4]

2 cups chocolate soy milk

5 to 6 tablespoons raw chia seeds (depending on how thick you want it)

Berries (optional)

Combine chia seeds with chocolate soy milk and stir vigorously with a fork for several minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes and stir again until the chia seeds are well blended and separated. Let the mixture sit out for an hour, stir one more time and refrigerate at least one day until thickened and firm. (I think I left it for 3-4 hours)/ This is a good dessert to make a day or two in advance in order to give it time to set. When ready to serve, top with strawberries or raspberries and divide into 4 small serving dishes.

I enjoyed this, it's just like eating really thick chocolate soy milk. Although I thought it could be a tad sweeter, next time I might add some maple syrup and/or cinnamon.

One Ingredient Vegan Soft Serve

This is ridiculous easy. So easy that I had my doubts when Tahn shared the recipe but I now agree with choosing raw that this will change your life. But the texture really is like soft serve and best of all it's surprisingly tasty, healthy and super quick.

So you cut bananas into pieces and freeze. Then place frozen bananas in the food processor and voila:

I have a confession to make though, I was lazy and a week ago froze 3 bananas with the skin on. Big mistake! I couldn't take the skin off frozen so had to wait til they were partially defrosted and then try to get the skin off when they were all mushy which took  quite a while. So save yourself the trouble people!

We served it to plain to Richmond Bec and then Toby and I tried some with chocolate peanut butter on top! Terry very kindly brought some of this over from the states because I was curious. It is so frigging amazing.  I just can't decide what to do with it next, although it's tempting to just eat it out of the jar, I want to do something special with it, any ideas?

And then we used a tiny bit of the leftover banana soft serve and added frozen blueberries to make blueberry flavoured ice cream. This was great too, although it meant the texture wasn't as smooth. I love a bit of crunch in ice cream though so enjoyed this.

I look forward to experimenting with this further will all of these hot days coming up.

Agave Cinnamon Almond Balls

These are so easy and quick to make, took me about 5 minutes in total. Plus they are healthy, raw, contain only 3 ingredients and are alkaline diet friendly. More on the alkaline thing later. I think quick recipes deserve quick blog posts.

This is based on the raw almond honey and cinnamon balls from Gone Raw.

As the author suggested, you could coat it coconut or something else. The cinnamon flavour is strong, so if you don't love it I would suggest using something else.

Makes 10 tiny balls

Ingredients: 

a few handful of almonds
about 2 tablespoons of agave ( I think you could possibly use a bit less)
cinnamon for coating

Preparation: 

Crush the almonds in a food processor, add agave to make it into thick paste. Pour cinnamon in a little plate, take a bit of almond mixture, roll it into a ball, and coat it with cinnamon.