Lunch Box - Oranges and Blackberries

Ingredients:

(Serves 1)

6 medium oranges

14 blackberries 

Chop up the oranges into eights add to your container and scatter with blackberries (mine were frozen - they defrosted by lunch time). I made mine in the morning ready for lunch time. 

Sweet and Spicy Sunday Salad

Ingredients:

(Serves 1 or 2)

1/2 cucumber 30cm

1 small courgette

1 carrot

1 red pepper

4 small garlic cloves

1 apple

1 tomato

lemon juice

1 tin of Chickpeas

1 head romaine lettuce

1/2 cup sun dried tomatos

In a food processor with the grater attachment shred the cucumber, courgette, carrot, red pepper, garlic, apple and tomato. Place into a large bowl and add the lemon juice and chickpeas. Serve on a bed of lettuce and top with diced sun dried tomatoes :)

Recipe makes 6x this bowl full :D yummy! 

Pesto Canapés

Ingredients: 

1 cup cherry tomatoes

Pesto: 

1/4 - 1/2 cup pine nuts (soak over night to reduce the fat) 

1 garlic clove

Large bunch of fresh basil

1/2 lemon juiced 

1/3 - 1 medium courgette (zucchini) 

In a pestle and mortar grind up the pine nuts into a paste, then add the garlic and basil, grind together. Stir in the lemon juice. In a food processor combine the courgette with more basil and blend into a paste, then stir into the mixture. Easy and delicious! 

For the canapés slice the cherry tomatoes in halves and spread with pesto. Wonderful :) 

Creamy Raspberry Delight

Ingredients:

(Serves 1)

1/2 cup raspberries 

3 spotty bananas 

Peel bananas, break into pieces, place into a freezable container with the raspberries and freeze for 2+ hours (best to freeze a load then use when needed). When frozen, place bananas and raspberries into a bowl, and blend up with a hand blender. Serve in a pretty bowl and dig in!

TopTip: make five times this potion because it is sooo good that you will be wishing you had made more ;) Also because this is extremely healthy it is 100% guilt free! :D

Chocolate Heaven Whip

Ingredients: 

(Serves 1) 

3 spotty bananas

2 tsp carob powder *

Peel bananas, break into pieces, place into a freezable container and freeze for 2+ hours (best to freeze a load then use when needed). When frozen place bananas into a bowl, sprinkle with the carob and blend up with a hand blender. Serve in a pretty bowl and dig in!

*carob grows on trees, is caffeine free and tasted better than chocolate. I used powdered carob beans  which can be found in some health food stores or on amazon. 

TopTip: make five times this potion because it is sooo good that you will be wishing you had made more ;) Also because this is extremely healthy it is 100% guilt free! :D

Caramel Sunday

Ingredients:

(Serves 1 but I ate 2) 

8 medjool dates 

4 ripe bananas 

Spring of mint

Pit dates and soak for 5 or more minutes in 1 cup of water. Whilst soaking, chop up the bananas into rounds and place to the side. Once dates are soaked blend into a paste with the soaking water using a hand blender until a thick paste forms. In a large wine glass place a layer of banana pieces, then 1 or 2 teaspoons of date paste, then another layer of banana etc. Garnish with mint and dig in with a long sunday spoon. 

The best thing about this delicious creation is that it's sooo sweet, gooey, caramelly, fragrant, and it's high carb, low fat, vegan, 100% fruit and it sooo good for you! Therefore, eat until your hearts content, belly full, very happy and completely guilt free :) 

TopTip: for something extra special top with cinnamon 

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Sweet Beet Sauce

Ingredients:

(Serves 1-4)

800g sweet cherry tomatoes *

6 cooked beetroots

Big bunch of dill

Big bunch of basil

Small bunch of coriander 

Blend until smooth or desired consistency and serve, or allow to marinade over night :) beaut! 

* the riper the sweeter and thinker - think wrinkly skin and squishy ;) 

Raspberry Ruby Tart

Ingredients: 

(Serves 1 or 2) 

2 cups dates 

1.5 cups dried figs

1-3 cups raspberries 

Pit the dates and add to a food processor along with the figs. Mix on high until well combined into a large sticky ball. Squish onto baking paper until desired thickness and place in the freezer for about 1 hour to harden (optional). Then slice into shapes, top with raspberries and mash them down with a folk. 

Simple and delicious.

 

Frothy Medjool Cream Dream

Ingredients:

(Serves 1)

8 Medjool dates 

500 ml water

Fill blender with water, pit dates and add, then blend on full power until well combined and frothy. Warning: seriously frothy and divine! 

Merry Berry Bliss Ice Cream and Smoothie

Ingredients:

(Serves 1 or 2)

6 ripe bananas

4 frozen bananas

1 cup frozen blackberries 

To a blender add the ripe bananas, blackberries and about 500 ml water. Pulse until smooth and pour into a jug. Then add the frozen bananas to the empty blender and pour about 1/2 cup of the smoothie back into the blender. Boil the kettle and pour a little over the frozen bananas to melt them slightly. Blend it up, you may need to pause a few times to bash the banana pieces up. Once thick and creamy, serve. Pour the smoothie into a glass. Delicious! 

Bell Pepper Salad Sauce

Ingredients: 

(Serves 2)

1 red bell pepper

4 stoned donut peaches

1 carrot

Lemon juice

Mint

2 courgettes spiralized 

1 head romaine lettuce

Blend in a food processor the pepper, peaches and carrot until a thick sauce. Place on top of the lettuce and spiralized courgette.  Add mint and serve. 

Berry Wine

Ingredients:

(Serves 1 or 2)

1/4 cup black and red currents

4 homegrown organic eating apples

A juicer

Juice the currents and apples and enjoy, delicious. 

Grapefruit

Ingredients:

(Serves 1)

1-4 Grapefruits 

Chop into segments and suck out the juice or peel the membrane off each individual segment. The sour flavour would be the misty white membrane, so just remove this for the sweet juicy pink segments. Or in you have a metal or hard plastic straw the poke a hole in the top, wiggle it around until a mush if formed inside the skin. Then suck out the juice. I love eating it this way :) 

P.S. add mint leaves for decoration ;) 

 

No Ordinary Salad...

Ingredients:

(Serves 1)

2 large heads mixed lettuce

1 large orange bell pepper

4 tomatoes very ripe and squishy 

Fresh basil

1/2 Cucumber (optional)

Wash lettuce in salad spinner, add to large bowl. Chop up the pepper into strips and add. Place the tomatoes into a jug and blend with a hand blender or use your vitamix. Pour the sauce over the salad and add fresh basil. You could spiralize the cucumber and stir that in too. 

Cucumber and Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

(Serves 1)

1 cucumber spiralized 

2 large very ripe squishy tomatoes blended

Basil leaves

Add cucumber to bowl, pour the tomato sauce on top and top with basil

Plantains and Rice

Ingredients:

(Serves 2)

1 plantain *

2 cups (dry weight) Thai Jasmine rice 

2.5 cups water

Cook rice in rice cooker or wash the rice in the pan then add the water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes covered. Meanwhile, peel the plantain (like you would a banana) slice thinly add to a frying pan. Then add 2 tbsp of water, cover with a lid and heat on high until bubbling. Then simmer until soft and bright yellow. 

Serve. Delicious quick meal. 

*Plantains are basically cooking bananas. They cannot be eaten raw and are much more starchy than bananas. They are actually vegetables and are grown in tropical countries. I bought mine at my local Arab shop. When steam fried as above they taste sweet, soft, creamy and succulent.

This is a Plantain: 

Protein Talk

Think your not getting enough protein? ... Maybe your actually getting too much of the wrong type?

Part 1: CLICK HERE

Part 2: CLICK HERE

The fig below contains 4% protein, plenty for even an athlete as long as you eat enough calories, aim for 2500 to 3000 of just fresh fruit alone and maybe throw in a romaine lettuce for dinner. Check out my recipes below or just create a meal of just figs or just bananas. You will be surprised how amazing it is to indulge in so much juicy fruitiness whilst giving your body the nutrition it was designed for. 

Pumpkin Soup - tasty even before Halloween

Ingredients: 

(Serves loads or save for second day) 

1 pumpkin - 3kg

5 medium potatoes

3 medium carrots - I used homegrown 

4 shallots

2 litres filtered water 

10 bay leaves

Fresh or dried chillies - 2 tsp 

2 tsp ground cumin 

Fresh basil 

First prepare all vegetables: with a large sharp knife chop up pumpkin in half, then scoop out seeds and slice like melon. Slice each piece into thirds, then chop off the skin (you could bake this in the oven to make crisps). Then chop up the potatoes into quarters and carrots into cylinders. Prepare the shallots finely then put a large pan on a high heat with a splash of water. Boil the kettle with 2 litres water. Once pan water is bubbling vigorously add the shallots, cook until soft then add the pumpkin, potatoes and carrots to he pan. Pour the boiling water over the top until veg all covered. Add the bay leaves and cook for 10 minutes. Then add the chillies and cumin, continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes until veg are soft. Add the basil turn off the heat, then using a hand blender carefully blend together into a soup. Serve or allow to cool and refrigerate for the next day for the best taste ever! 

Peach and Kiwi Dish

Ingredients: 

(Serves 1-2) 

3 donut peaches

3 nectarines 

1 papaya 

2 kiwis

Remove the stones from the peaches and nectarines and chop into eights. Chop papaya in half, remove seeds and scoop into bowl. Mash of blend the kiwis to top. Serve. Delicious! 

Lettuce, Sweet Potato and Beetroot

Ingredients: 

(Serves 2)

1 head cos lettuce

1 large sweet potato

1 large beetroot 

Tear the lettuce into bite size pieces and wash in the salad spinner. Steam the sweet potatoes and beetroot until soft, then serve on top of the lettuce. 

Hint: if you have some beetroot leaves then just wash and add to the lettuce or wilt for a spinach like texture. 

Simply Rice and Runner Beans

Ingredients:

(Serves 1 or 2)

2 cups (dry weight) White Thai jasmine rice

2.5 cups water

As many runner beans as you can get hold of mine are homegrown 

Pour the rice into a pan and rinse gently, pour the water away then add the 2.5 cups to the pan. Cover with a lid and heat on high until bubbling, then simmer for 10 minutes. Make sure you taste it at this point. All the water should be absorbed and the rice should be fluffy. 

Hint: don't remove the lid at all until 10 minutes have passed. 

Meanwhile; with the scissors just snip the runner beans into centimetre pieces and steam until soft. 

Add all to a bowl and dig in. Yum. 

P.s. this recipe make x4 of this bowl