Globe Artichokes with Summer Green Dip

Delicious? Absolutely! This recipe makes for the perfect starter dish for lovers of good food and it is also really easy to create.
This being the first time I had tried these little beauties from Riverford, I was well impressed with the outcome, such a delicate and graceful way to enjoy veg, just sorry I didn’t get to it sooner!
Nice one Guy 🙂
If you haven’t tried these yet, it’s time to get your veg box on and enjoy the wonders of nature!

Ingredients:
2x Organic Globe Artichokes
1x Small plant of Summer Greens
1x Vine Tomato
Approx 75ml Homemade Almond Milk
Dash of Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Method:
Wash and shake the artichokes, cut away the stalk and remove all the rough, outer leaves.
Boil in a pan for approx 35 minutes.
When the artichokes are ready use the same pan and boil the cabbage and tomato for approx 3 minutes.
Add them to a blender, add all other ingredients and blend for 1 minute.
Serve immediately and enjoy the divine 🙂

The best way to eat this vegetable is to pull off a leaf at a time, dip it in the sauce then gently glide your teeth from the top of the leaf to the bottom and slide out the ‘meaty’ bit! I loved trying them without the sauce first to appreciate both ways. Once you have finished each leaf pile them up and repeat until you get down to the flowery part. Satisfyingly delightful and very tasty!

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Organic Anti-Candida Spicy Springtime Recipe

This plate of food tasted amazing, like a vegetable curry and I just totally winged it so excuse the quantities please!

This dish is to keep Candida overgrowth at bay in a delicious way as well as being great for promoting weight loss.

Swede (Rutabaga) is known to help combat candida as are spices so feel free to add amounts to your taste. Bear in mind that too much swede will write of the weight loss factor in this recipe.

Main dish:

1″ thick small Swede
Small bunch of Purple Sprouting Broccoli (leaves removed)
A few leaves of Spring Greens or 1 small head (depending on the wildness of the crop)
5″ of Leek
2 sticks of Asparagus

Sauce:

1/2 a Cauliflower’s leaves
All the leaves from the Broccoli
A sprinkle of Turmeric
A sprinkle of Cayenne Pepper
A sprinkle of Black Pepper
A sprinkle of Cumin
Approx. 1/2 Ounce Water *non-organic

All vegetables are from Riverford Organic Farm – please visit their site Riverford.co.uk for the freshest food the UK has to offer.

Method:

Wash all the vegetables.
Cut away the leaves for the sauce and put to one side.
Chop the swede, spring greens and leek into small amounts.
Half the asparagus.
Steam all the veg for about 7 minutes.
Remove the veg and drain.
Add the leaves for the sauce, the spices and the water to the blender.
Blend until smooth.
Arrange the vegetables on a plate and decorate with the sauce.
ENJOY!

I really hope you enjoy this dish. I was so happy it tasted like a curry! 🙂

 

Squash & Sqweeze Soup

Yum, yum, yummy! Another pea green soup! How fun. The possibilities are endless, I never thought one could get so excited over soup! Every night it is on the menu I cannot wait to get cooking.

Try tonight’s soup.

Ingredients:

1/2 Kombocha Squash* **
200g Swede* **
100g Swiss Chard* **
1tblsp Good hemp oil
1 Average size Bay Leaf* **
1 dessertspoon Superfoodies Desiccated Coconut*
A pinch of Pink Salt
Water for steaming

* Organic
** From Riverford Organic Farms

Method:

Wash and chop all the vegetables.
Add the squash and swede to a steamer for 5 minutes then add the Chard and Bay leaf, further steam for 10 minutes.
Pour away most of the steaming water.
Add the Oil, Coconut and Salt and blend until smooth.

Serve hot. Delicious 🙂

Broccoli & Onion Potatoes Roasted in Hemp Oil

Ingredients:

850g Small Organic Orla Potatoes
1/4 Organic Broccoli
1 Organic Onion
1 tbsp Hemp Oil
Pinch of Pink Himalayan Salt
Non bleached Parchment Paper

Method:

Preheat oven to Gas mark 6.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper and add to oven.
Slice the potatoes and add to the baking tray. Pour over the oil and salt and using your hands coat and glaze the potatoes well, laying them flat in the tray. Add to the oven.
Next chop the broccoli and onion then add the veg to the steamer for approx 10 minutes. Drain off any water and blend until smooth.
After 45 minutes of cooking the potatoes add the sauce. Further heat until the sauce has slightly browned.

Allow to slightly before serving.

The Protocol Prep Soup

Delicious Dinner Soup.

Round up, round up, healthy food without Monsanto’s Round Up anyone? Uh huh that’s what I thought!

Time to get holistically healthy and soup is on the menu!

The Protocol Prep Soup Recipe

1x Organic Garlic Clove
1x Organic Onion
1x Organic Carrot
2x Organic Parsnips
2x Organic Branches of Broccoli
1/2 Organic Fennel
1/2 Organic Lemon
100g Organic Rutabaga
100ml Organic Homemade Almond Milk
Small group of Fresh Wild Chives
Pinch of Pro Fusion Pink Himalayan Salt
Drizzle of Organic Olive Oil

All vegetables are from Riverford Organic Farm.
The Almonds are sent with love from Superfoodies.
The chives are locally wild harvested by myself.

Wash and chop all the ingredients and crush the garlic.
Add the rutabaga, parsnip and carrot to a steam blender for 10-15 minutes then add all other ingredients bar a pinch of chives and salt and further steam for 10 minutes (times may vary according to individual blender brand).

Water can substitute the milk for optimum purity.

Serve hot.

ENJOY!

Bergamot & Rocket Topped Salad For Lunch

Healthy and organic lunchtime recipe.

After realising the goodness and feeling the health benefits in my digestive system I feel it is still important to have food in the diet which needs chewing therefore I have allocated lunch to being this meal with breakfast as a smoothie and dinner as a soup, with NO snacking in between!
Until Thursday morning whatever I do is my trial period (LOL!). No seriously I simply cannot do this greed and sweet craving bull anymore so with a little help from my friend I have devised a plan and intend to do the best I can to stick to it eliminating everything that is making me unwell including stress. It has become deeply apparent that a huge trigger to me delving into mindless munching is a lack of stress management. I can go from being the happiest doll you ever met with sunshine literally beaming from me looking like I met the man of my dreams and actively living in a beautifully confident way to instantly being drained of all colour and not caring about anything but ingesting sweetness. I can see where the phrase “sweet enough already” comes from, when I don’t feel ‘sweet’ I mindlessly fill up on such foods, seriously screwing myself in the long run! Not the progression I need. Nevertheless I seek change and righteousness with an almighty force from within so I will achieve my goal and here’s the perfect lunch to help me do so…

Organic Lunchtime Salad Recipe

1x handful of Riverford Mixed Salad leaves + a few leaves to top
5x (small) Lettuce Leaves
1/2 Courgette
1/2 Bergamot Lemon
A drizzle of Casa Lucena Olive Oil

Using a bamboo knife, chop the mixed salad and lettuce leaves and combine. Dice the courgette and mix it into the leaves. Squeeze out the lemon into the dish and stir it up. Drizzle over with this delicious oil and toss it all together.
Use a few aesthetically pleasing and colourful leaves to top off the salad for presentation before serving.

Take a seat and a deep breath and slowly enjoy this meal savouring each mouthful (mandatory!).

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this simple little dish.

Chocolate Love

Almond & Hemp Oven Flatbread – Healthy, Homemade & Organic

For the last year I have been slowly trying out different unleavened breads and trying to find the healthiest ways to cook them.

When you are a vegan that is intolerant to gluten, dairy, yeast, xanthan gum, artificial everything and sugar the breads available in the shop tell a new story of anti-health and the list of recipes available somewhat slims down leaving a person to use their own knowledge, experience and common sense to get creative with bread. I tried oven baked loaves and was not having much success and being on a tight budget I couldn’t afford to keep throwing bags of flour in the bin with trial and error so oven baked, unleavened bread became my best friend.

For a while I was making flatbread in a pan, either dough ball or pancake mix consistency but I didn’t agree with the high heating the oil all the time when I knew it could be better and for a while I was stuck in a rut with it, although still knowing it was healthier than any bread I was able to buy. I mean really, when was the last time You saw buckwheat bread in a store?
Learning to oven bake the flatbread (and it actually being successful) all started when I followed the an awesome pizza base recipe.
From that I have made dozens of variations to finally have several I would be happy to share naming them healthy.
I have got to the point where my children will eat this bread with anything added to it, for instance, they do not eat steamed Kale, Nori or desiccated Coconut in their own forms but are happy to enjoy my bread with those ingredients blended in.

I have weaned my Boys right off adding any sweetners to the bread. For so long I was adding Agave Syrup not realising how it effects the glucose levels and I can now happily say we use no sweeteners in our bread.
To me, many foods in our diet, such as fruits / seeds, seem to contain enough natural glucose of their own so the need to add more isn’t actually necessary and can be quite harmful to someone verging on the edge if type 2 diabetes or serious candida overgrowth.

This week I have tried two new flours, Ground Almond Flour and Gram Flour and both are a hit.

This recipe is a 3 flour recipe and you will need:

* 2x Cups Organic Buckwheat Flour

* 1/2 Cup Hemp Flour

* 1/3 – 1/2 Cup Almond Flour

* 2 1/2 Cups of Water

* A generous drizzle of Olive Oil

* A sprinkle of salt (if desired)

* Baking Tray

* Parchment Paper

Preheat the preheat oven to 200C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and pop it in the oven to warm up. Mix the dry food ingredients together very well. Next add 2 cups of water slowly stirring constantly, add the oil and mix thoroughly. Add another 1/2 cup of water and check the consistency once mixed well. You want it like batter. Thick and runny. Add more water if it doesn’t run. Add a little more Buckwheat flour if is too watery. Carefully remove the tray from the oven and scoop the bread mix onto it, spreading it out evenly. Put the tray back in the oven for approximately 25 minutes. When the time is done, allow it to slightly cool, score into pieces, cut and serve warm.

Thick and filling healthy bread.

Chocolate Diversity – Raw, Organic, Homemade & Healthy

Once you realise just how easy it is to create your own Chocolate bars you then realise just how fun it is to create diverse combinations of delicious flavour to add to them. There’s so many choices, I added more and more even after I had photographed all the ingredients! It’s all down to personal preference and availability of produce. Using a base of raw, organic Cacao, Butter, Lucuma, Coconut Sugar and Vanilla I then had a dig in my brimming cupboard and let my mind run free and impulsive over mixing up different combos of magical fruits, nuts and super powders from Walnuts to Acai powder, chopped Mulberries to Hemp flour and if the pantry was fully loaded the possibilities are infinite. How fun being an in home chocolatier is! I totally recommend it for all. Share the love. Its definitely in the School planner for a regular cooking lesson for the kids, although it literally takes a short while to produce such finery, its method from start to finish has enjoyable stages (i.e making the bain marie, melting the butter, the moulds, adding cool stuff) that differ to the average sweet food production of sweets, cakes, biscuits etc making it a truly unique and sacred food creation method. By following this way you can really feel the pleasure of Chocolate at its fullest (energy boosting, happiness enhancing, so scrummy) whilst it being highly beneficial to your health. Unlike the regular ready-made bar you usually find in the stores, you will really be nutritionalised when crafting for yourself this way with no ill after effects. The usual conception of a ‘chocolate bar’ is unhealthy, full of sugar, artificial (often dangerous)or a guilty pleasure and these all ring true for approximately 90% of street choc so people tend to avoid it like the plague or deeply indulge with huge feels of guilt and self-disappointment thus giving Cacao; true chocolate) a bad name! Well its about time we switched things up, changed this incorrect view of cacao and brought chocolate in to its rightful illumination as a heathy and dare I say vital food for humans. Raw cacao (not cocoa) instantly releases happiness and lifts energy and isn’t in anyway bad for human health so there should be no hesitance or guilt surrounding it. Now i know the trueness of Cacao and can speak from living experience of its beneficial factors, I think its important to re-introduce chocolate to people and the market through sharing the true factual knowledge, removing the mask which has formed along the lines and reveal Chocolate for its true nutritional values, educating everyone to optimum health through one of the most delicious and pleasurable ways. To find out how to make a simple base chocolate see my previous Cacao post. Once you have made up your base, before it sets, mix in your favourite super health boosting foods and create your very own personalised chocolate bars, buttons, shapes, drops etc. depending on the moulds you have to the level of fun achieved. Heck, you could even carve writing or doodle flowers in it with a knife while its setting if you’re feeling really arty! Food Fun Now! With this batch we went a little nutty with the combos but its worked and just knowing the pure goodness in each bar makes them the most delicious chocolates I ever tasted. This time we combined and added to 4 different bars to cater for the family we’re having over this weekend:

Almond, Hemp & Walnut                                                        2 types of raw chopped nuts with raw hemp flour This is definitely a favourite as it’s got the crunch

 

Blueberry and Cinnamon                                               Raw Fruit and herb powders combined Provides a smoother sweetness

 

Incan Berries, Mulberries and Strawberry                                                   2 types of chopped raw dried berries with raw dried Strawberry powder Wow the textures, the tastes, if only the batch was bigger!

 

Acai, Coconut and Moringa                                    Combination of powders. Look out optimum health, yum, yum, yummy! Jumping Jupiter who would put that lot together but yes it works, from one flavour to the next here’s a creamy tasting bar I will definitely be making again!

Wow what a greatly pleasing, inexpensive and satisfying experience this was, this will be a very regular occurrence in this house. I urge you to go out (buy online) the organic essential ingredients for Chocolate making (or blend them up if you already have them) and spice up your very own bar today! Enjoy 🙂

Organic Raw Chocolate Natural Homeschooling Cooking Lesson

Monday morning’s class this week began in the most magical of ways. The Sun was booming in through the kitchen, the whole family was happy and the love was strong.
After a most healthy breakfast my children and I set about our homeschool for the day. The topic for the morning was cooking and as my children are young toddlers this was going to be our first real encounter with using the oven and quite a daunting one at that!
Nevertheless we began. Making raw Cacao Chocolate was to be the first set of culinary skills my children would acquire. Great start right!
As i had never done this before either it was a new, paleo technique i was to master also! How, simple, quick and easy it was, not forgetting to mention how deliciously potent the aromas are.
The kids got stuck right in and loved stirring the butter until it melted, this was a little lesson in patience and how to stir at the same time. As soon as it started to melt my eldest knew ‘chocolate, chocolate, chocolate’ was coming testing the virtue of patience further! Further through the process they both loved being in control of the spoon, minding not to touch the hot bowl and pan.
Their favourite part of making the mix was tasting it from the spoon and bowl and covering their hands and faces in it. It was a extreme chocolately mess and we all loved it! It was definitely a hit in this kitchen and one to be practiced  much more often as the list of ingredients that can be added is almost infinite. Such fun! We loved health-packed superfoods!

Nowadays when we think of Cacao, where the reality of our western culture has been so far obscured, its all too easy to fall under the influence of chocolate being full of sugar and not very good for our health but this is far from the raw truth and actually only has any connection to the readily available, heat treated, sugar laced / artificially enhanced types!
Natural Organic Raw Cacao Chocolate is nutritionally beneficial to our health and deeply satisfying  for our system holistically in so many ways, all you need to do is ingest a small amount to truly feel the full effects of its divine power.

Benefits of Raw Cacao Chocolate:
+ High Magnesium (happiness & stamina booster)
+ High Sulphur (known for healthy nail and hair growth whilst being cleansing to the liver and pancreas)
+ High in antioxidants (disease prevention)
+ Diminishes appetite (perfect for snacking / sees you through hunger gaps)
+ Tantalizes taste buds (joy for the mouth!)
+ Combines with every other food you can think of

As well as being totally amazing for your mind and body Cacao Chocolate is an awesome party piece and a brilliant talking point. Since learning just how easy it is to make I vow now to spread the word to all I know, gifting my dearest friends and family with starter kits to create their own so the love can truly be felt and cast far and wide.
We bought a beautifully made, simple, basic, standard, organic Chocolate making kit and added a few of our own ingredients from the cupboard to give added yum.

Requirements:

Heatproof Bowl
Saucepan
Spoon / Spatula
Oven top
Moulds
Cocoa Powder 100g
CocoaButter 100g
3g Vanilla Powder
100ml Agave Syrup

Optional / additional:

1tsp Acai Berry Powder
1tsp Blueberry Powder
2tsp Hemp Flour

Method:

• First put about 1/3 saucepan of water on to heat, no need fr it to boil. Place in your glass / heatproof inside the pan to flaoat and there you have created your own bain marie if you don’t already have one.
• Next add all the Cacao Butter and gently stir until just melted.
• Then add all the vanilla powder and keep stirring until totally blended. You may add the additional ingredients if desired, mixing until blended.
• After this add all of the Cacao Powder and mix until smooth.
• Last ingredient to be added is the Agave Syrup, using the full bottle mic for around 101 stirs hen you shall see it totally blended.
• Pour out the molten chocolate into your desired molds and allow to set in the fridge for around 15-30 minutes depending on fridge temp and depth of molds. I recommend using a high quality rubber mold as it will be easier to pop out and wont leave as much of the chocolate behind.
• Enjoy! (Compulsory)
  

Once you try this method and understand how simple and beautiful it is crafting your on chocolate snacks you will never look at chocolate the same again!

By creating your own blocks, bars or slabs you can be truly as diverse as you feel in that moment using whichever additional ingredients that you like. Using superfood berries really makes these chocolate bars very, very healthy for you! Really. Body and mind, a whole feeling of well-being is achieved from just a small amount. Now i know how, there is no stopping me making homemade chocolates for our family every time they are craved!

I hope yours turns out as amazing as ours 🙂