Frozen Coconut Berry Bombs

I got into a bad habit a few years ago where I simply was not satisfied after dinner until I had something sweet. I used to be content with a few frozen raspberries, then it progressed to raspberries with yoghurt, which then progressed to raspberries with yoghurt and walnuts, which then …. Well you get the picture. Before I knew it I was having a second dinner.

I tried to satisfy myself with a herbal tea but it just didn’t cut it. It’s not that I’m hungry it’s just that my stupid food brain (it’s different to your extremely intelligent normal brain) thinks it needs something sweet to feel satisfied before it fasts until morning.

There is another problem with this whole sweet craving before bed issue I’ve got going on. If I eat sugar before bed I can’t sleep properly. I have weird dreams, I toss and I turn and well it’s just easier not to.

But never fear! I stumbled upon a pretty clever solution the other day while I was freezing some leftover coconut milk from my green soup. This is pretty clever if I do say so myself. Even if  your food brain is feeling particularly gluttonous and you end up eating five of these instead of just one, you’re still doing alright for yourself.

Frozen coconut berry bombs

Okay so here’s the deal. Coconut milk freezes pretty well. The full fat freezes better than the light but use either they’re both equally satisfying and only differ by about 16 calories. There is no sugar in coconut milk, but it tastes so decadent which makes this a perfect after dinner treat.

Ingredients

Canned coconut milk

Frozen berries (which ever you prefer)

Method

Take an empty ice tray and place a single berry in each compartment. Fill with coconut milk, and stick in freezer until frozen.

Voila! Does it get any easier than that? So yummy, so easy and not bad for you at all.

Love that!

Not that we like to focus on this stuff but if you’re interested each bomb contains only 40 calories (regular coconut milk) or 24 calories (light coconut milk). 

Raw Vegan Cacao Brownies

This post is going to change your life. It may not encourage a raw food movement or persuade you to switch to a vegan lifestyle but it will definitely change the way you eat sweet treats.

My oven sucks! No that’s not true, it’s great for roasting vegetables or salmon in foil, but when it comes to baking it pretty much blows. It’s too hot and if I turn it down it doesn’t cook anything so instead of embarrassing myself with raw cakes and burnt biscuits I refuse to bake at home anymore.

But I do love a sweet baked good. Who doesn’t? This is where the raw food movement comes in quite handy. Apparently there are endless possibilities when it comes to what ‘baked goods’ you can create without using a heat source. Love this!

I stumbled across this Raw Brownie recipe the other day by Sarah Britton. She is a holistic nutritionist working in Copenhagen and moonlights as a raw food chef in two of Copenhagen’s most famous organic restaurants. Her blog is whole food porn!

This raw brownie has no dairy, no wheat, no refined sugar, no eggs and no cocoa. It requires no oven, or stove top in fact it requires no cooking at all.

It only has five ingredients and I would go so far as to say that it would be more than appropriate to indulge in one of these brownies everyday if you so choose.

You still don’t believe me huh? ‘It may be good for me’ you’re thinking ‘but it couldn’t possibly taste like a brownie, could it’? Yeah it could!

The one thing essential to this recipe is a food processor. Please please don’t attempt to try this in a blender it will NOT work.

Ingredients

2 ½ cups of walnuts

2 cups of dates, roughly chopped

1 cup of raw organic cacao

1 ½ cups of almonds, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon of sea salt

Method

1. Place walnuts in food processor and blend on high until the nuts are finely ground (They should resemble cake crumbs. This is what will essentially act as the flour in this recipe.)
2. Add the cacao and salt. Pulse to combine.
3. Add the dates in batches through the feed tube of the food processor while it is running.
4. In a large bowl combine the walnut-cacao mix with the chopped almonds.

5. Press into a lined cake pan or mould (because of the dates the mix should bind together well when pressed into the pan.) Place in freezer of fridge until ready to serve (it is also easier to cut these when they are cold). Sift extra cacao over the top of brownies if desired. Store in an airtight container.

One-armed adult scrambled eggs.

Epiphany time! It occurred to me last night as the ballerina and I sat around a coffee table completely covered in unopened mail, that we were taking part in a defining moment of adulthood.

I have, for many years now, convinced myself that if I keep a bill safely sealed in its envelope with the ‘intention’ of opening it ‘eventually’ that it doesn’t exist. For me bills define what it means to be an adult. They represent responsibility, time management, financial planning and most importantly independence.

Not opening bills in the past has resulted in my electricity and gas being cut, my licence expiring, debt collectors chasing me for a more than affordable unpaid pathology bill, and most recently a bungle with the ATO.  All of these situations could have been avoided if I had taken action the minute the mail arrived, instead of putting off the inevitable.

In the past few months I have slowly curbed this urge and follow these simple rules when the dreaded mail arrives.

1. Never open it before bed or on a Friday night. If the news is bad there is nothing you can do until business hours and there is no sense stressing about it until then.
2. If it is a bill you simply can’t afford call them straight away and work out a payment plan. Past experience has proven they are SO much more helpful if you just talk to them. Running away just actions the debt collectors.
3. Ignoring it does not make it go away.

No I haven’t changed careers. I am most certainly not your financial planner. Ha! Could you imagine? I’m telling you all of this because this week I got myself in to a right old mess. I Fucked up my tax, I just forked out an exorbitant amount of money on my green slip and car rego, I dislocated my shoulder in yoga which resulted in a $600 ambulance arriving to take me to the hospital. The rehabilitation of said shoulder will result in $110 weekly Osteopathy bills and it’s been a bitch washing my hair in the morning when I can’t lift my right arm above shoulder height!

Last week I had none of these problems. Last week I was debt free. Last week I was quite enjoying being a self sufficient, single, 27 year old female who just got a promotion. This week I just want to be a kid again.

Which brings me to this week’s recipe.

Green vegetable and scrambled egg mash-up

Serves 2

This recipe is a representation of this weeks struggle. Its budget friendly (I am bleeding money at the moment), it’s incredibly easy (cooking with one arm is challenging to say the least), it’s low in fat (which is handy since I have been banned from the gym until I get the all clear from my osteo), and it’s full of flavour (ummmm yum?).

It also reminds me of my childhood. Scrambled eggs at dinner time was one of my favourite meals. This is an adult’s version of scrambled eggs. I think you’re gonna love it. I’ve been having it for dinner but it would work equally well for breakfast or lunch.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon of olive oil

3 cm piece of ginger, finely grated

5 cm piece of leek, finely sliced

4 florets of broccoli, chopped into bite sized bits

1 small zucchini, finely chopped

½ bunch of Kale, coarsely chopped

2 teaspoons of sweet chilli sauce (optional)

4 eggs

2 tablespoons of water

½ avocado

Coriander

Method

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add ginger, leek, broccoli, zucchini and kale until vegetables begin to soften slightly. Add sweet chilli sauce. 
2. Meanwhile whisk 4 eggs in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of water.
3. Add eggs to saucepan and push them through the vegetables until they scramble to your liking (I like mine kinda runny).
4. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with sliced avocado and coriander.

Note: I sprinkled mine with sesame seeds, but chia seeds would be just as tasty.