Raw Plum Yum Jam

I know I already instagrammed this but I had to write this easy and super healthy recipe on the blog because it was really so yummy! To make this raw jam you'll need some always magical chia seeds which use their superfood super powers to turn things into thick and goopy jelly-goodness! For the fruity bit you could use strawberries, blueberries, peaches or any fruity thing you like I suppose. I used plums because I had so many left over from my last couple of farm boxes. I used about 6 or 7 good sized chopped raw plums and about 3 tablespoons of chia seeds, this made me enough jam to fill a small jar. Stick this into your blender with a nice dollop of honey. I used a heaped tablespoon of my favourite raw local honey but you can make it as sweet as you like! If the fruit you are using isn't as juicy as plums you could add a tablespoon or so of water to the mix just to help the chia seeds gelatify (that's probably not a word but you know what I mean). Blend until you get the consistency you like, pour into a lidded jar and chill before serving. You should end up with a delicious jam with a nice, gooey, jammy consistency full of raw fruit and chia goodness. It'll be full of fibre and omega 3 fatty acids, it'll will boost your energy, aid digestion, give you lovely glowing skin and just taste yummy. 

 Your jar of goodness should keep in the fridge for about 5 days. 

Wheat Free Banana Bread with Cashew Cream

I've been looking for ideas for things I can bake to go in Seb's Lunch box. I want to make sure he gets a nice filling, sweet treat every now and again but don't always want to send him off with conventional baked goods full of processed sugar and flour. Here's a recipe I came up with last week for a modified Banana bread that I can officially call a resounding success! I used brown rice flour and spelt flour instead of processed white flour. Coconut Oil instead of butter and coconut palm sugar instead of processed white sugar. I baked it last Thursday and it stayed moist and yummy in a sealed container for almost a week with a slice a day going off to school with Seb.  Result! 

I would have added walnuts or pecans but at the time I wasn't sure if there were any nut allergies in Seb's class so I left them out. I've since found out there are no allergies to worry about so I will definitely add them in next time. 

I made some cashew cream to top it off and enjoyed the odd slice myself with a bit of chopped banana and a wee sprinkle off bee pollen. Lovely with a cup of tea in the afternoon!

Banana Bread Ingredients

• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup dates (chopped)
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups bananas (mashed, very ripe, about 4)
• 3/4 cup Coconut palm sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 11/2 cups brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup Spelt flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup Coconut oil (melted)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. 
   
2. 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Pour 1 cup boiling water over dates in a small bowl. Let stand 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
3. 2. Lightly beat eggs with a whisk in a large bowl. Whisk in bananas and next 3 ingredients until blended.
4. 3. Stir together brown rice flour and next 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Gently stir flour mixture into egg mixture, stirring just until blended. Gently stir in melted coconut oil, walnuts, and dates. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
5. 4. Bake at 350° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).

Cashew Cream Ingredients

1 cup of raw cashews 

1/2 – 3/4 cup of filtered water (add more water according to consistency desired)

2-4 Tbsp. honey or pure maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.  Soak the cashews in filtered water for 3 hrs or more then strain.

2.   Add the cashews and fresh filtered water to the blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

3.   Add remaining ingredients then blend until smooth.

Power balls! Ka-pow!...

.....Or as I prefer to call them prune balls, I just think it sounds less pretentious don't you? :)

So I whipped these babies up yesterday with a batch of nut pulp left over from my nut milk. I'm afraid to say that nine times out of ten my nut pulp goes into the bin (or at least now the compost bin)  because I really haven't found a recipe that I'm likely to be bothered to produce everyday with my leftover pulp....until now that is! And this one I made up myself, Wooo! It was loosely based on an energy ball I tried at a really cool place in Nanaimo called Power House Living Foods, It's an entirely raw food cafe and for the five minutes that I was in there I was in heaven! If you have a mo check out their menu, it's mouthwateringly good and entirely raw. Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what was in their delicious power balls but mine are made with soaked almond pulp (from about 1 cup of blended almonds), 4 or five prunes ( but you could use medjool dates, figs or the like), a drizzle of raw honey and 1 1/2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Just process the pulp, honey and prunes into a nice fine chop then add the coconut oil and whizz for another minute or so to mix the oil into the mixture. Take small pinches of the mix and roll in the palm of your hand to form a ball. You can leave the balls naked or roll them in anything you fancy. I rolled some of mine in raw cacao (holy yummy balls batman!), some in sesame seeds, some in matcha powder and a couple in crushed up millet cereal (they didn't stick around long enough to be in the photo above). All were delicious but for me it's a tie between the sesame seeds and the raw cacao. Pop them in the fridge and they'll be nicely chilled and ready to eat in about 20 minutes. They make a satisfying and full of goodness treat for those of you with the curse of the sweet tooth like me. Keep them in the fridge and they'll last for 4 or 5 days ( or in my case, 4 hours before they're all eaten up!)
Give it a whirl why don't ya!

Scrummy Nut Butter....

Dear Santa,

Thankyou for getting me (and Neil) my brand new "candy apple red" food processor for Christmas this year. I'm sorry I opened it early but just think of all the wonderful, yummy nosh I can make now in all those days before Christmas really arrives. I made you some delicious hazelnut butter as a thank you gift but I'm afraid it was just so good I've eaten it all myself. I do promise I'll make some more and spread it thickly on your black bean cookies that I'll leave for you and the reindeers on Christmas eve. In the meantime here's the recipe in case you or Mrs Claus has time to whip some up...

Lots of love from your good friend Sophie

x 

Take a big bag of hazelnuts ( already shelled if you are sensible, if, like me, you are not, spend the next hour cracking them all open) spread them across a baking sheet and place in the oven at about 300F for 15-20 minutes until the husks begin to crack. Set aside and allow to cool then rub your nuts (hehe) between a tea towel to remove the husks. Whizz up in a beautiful shiny new candy apple red (optional) food processor for 1 -2 minutes until the nuts are chopped into a fine powder. Scrape down your bowl then whizz for another 2 minutes or so until you have a lovely smooth butter. If you need your nut butter a little more spreadable add a spoonful of your favourite oil. I would suggest nothing with a strong flavour that will detract from the yummy hazelnuttyness.  I then added a tablespoon full of raw cacao because I'm a chocoholic. It's like Nutella only WAAAAY better! Yum!

While I made the nut butter Neil made a loaf of Bread.....Hell Yeah!!

What I like to do with nuts....

For the last couple of months I've been making my own nut milk most mornings. It's ridiculously easy and it's become a really enjoyable little ritual for me. I soak my nuts overnight then first thing in the morning, while the kids are eating their toast, I rinse my nuts, whizz them up in the blender with some water, then strain and squeeze. I usually add a drop of maple syrup or agave nectar into the blender to sweeten and sometimes add some raw cacao powder to make extra yummy chocolate milk. Raw cacao is a total superfood, it contains more antioxidants than blueberries or green tea and is one of the best sources of magnesium found in nature. It also has a subtle amount of caffeine, just what I need to get me buzzing in the morning!

I've tried a few different recipes for my nut milk and have modified these to find the one that I like best. 

1/2 cup of nuts, soaked overnight....I usually use almonds but anything goes. 

2 Tbspns of maple syrup or agave nectar.

5 cups of water.

Blend, blend, blend!

Some recipes leave the pulp in the milk for added fibre but I'm more partial to a smooth, milk-like texture so I strain the pulp out.  Just pour through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth then squeeze the pulp bag to get the last drops of nutty milk out. I use these old juice bottles and love that they look like glass milk bottles from the good old days! My milk keeps for up to four days in the fridge (but usually gets drunk within a day or two in this house.) Remember to give it a good shake before pouring. We've used nut milk in in everything you would usually use dairy milk......with cereal, in smoothies, for baking....Neil even used it for Yorkshire Puds! 

Now, onto the pulp.....

Because I strain my nut milk I'm left with a pot of nut pulp every morning. I quite like munching on a spoonful straight out the blender but I've also sprinkled it on yogourt  or used it to make thicker smoothies. A couple of morning ago I was feeling experimental and decided to try making crackers.  I mixed the pulp with a little coconut oil and spread the mixture across a silicone cookie sheet to about the thickness of typical "ryvita" style cracker. (I told you this was experimental :) I baked the sheet at 250f for about half an hour checking constantly. Half way through I cracked the sheet into smaller "crackers" so that I could turn them.....

.....and voila!

They were a bit more crumbly than I was hoping for but really tasty! Much more so than a boring Ryvita! I topped them with my version of chocolate spread - mashed banana and raw cacao and a slice of fresh banana "for colour" as my Mummy would say :)
Yum!

The crackers and choc spread were snaffled in a flash but I had lots of toasty nut flavoured crumbs left over and they were so good sprinkled over our salad for lunch. Waste not want not and all that!

Hope I have inspired you all to be creative with your nuts!
;)

How do you like your nuts?.....

......in a little bowl? Roasted and salted? Perhaps even sprinkled over a salad? Yes, that's how I used to eat them too but not anymore folks! Not now that I have discovered the wonder of eating nuts in cheesecake form! Yes....I said cheesecake.

Seriously, who knew that blending up a bunch of nuts could ever, in a million years, resemble a cheesecake.

Behold the evidence. Looks like cheesecake, tastes like cheesecake. Just none of that yucky artery clogging cheese stuff.

Blown away by my recent discovery of raw brownies, I started investigating a little more and came across this recipe for a raw raspberry cashew dreamcake. Once again, it's made with all kinds of good stuff, cashew nuts, lemon juice, raspberries and honey with a date and walnut crust. You whizz it all up in a blender, stick it in the freezer and hey presto, probably one of the prettiest things I've ever made (other than Miss Bel of course.)

I think I'm hooked on this raw food malarky!