Boosted Berry Coconut Yogurt

You all know I'm a mad, crazy smoothie fan. To me, it's the number one way to get a whole lot of amazing ingredients all in one meal that tastes half decent.  But I understand we don't always feel like smoothies all year round, or every day.  Unless your me, of course.   I have recently started thinking outside of the box when it comes to boosting meals.  Add spinach to things that maybe you wouldn't normally (what could go wrong?), the amazing overnight oats recipe featuring chia seeds, fruit and LSA mix, or just packing in loads of grated veges into meatballs, patties, egg slices etc. You get the message.  

My latest trick is boosting my coconut yogurt, or just plain unsweetened if that's what you like.  I love my nutra bullet and have a tendency to blend everything in sight, so today I got busy experimenting with upping the nutrition in one of my fave things - coconut yogurt. 

The recipe below is really yummy and turns it from being a snack into a meal, I turned it into a bowl so I could add a bunch of toppings, but you could use it as the topping on your oats, granola or dessert - it's that good. 

Think of things that are good for you and experiment with blending them in to the yogurt. I popped in some chia seeds, a banana, some blueberries and topped with a nutty cacao blend and some more blueberries + chia seeds.  I also included some of The Wholesome Co immune health tub blend, which has a berry flavour and was so perfect for this and I know it has so many incredible ingredients to help boost my immunity at this time of year. 

These health tubs are basically natural blends of different ground ingredients designed to help different areas -  she has designed a hormone balancing one, glowing skin, breastfeeding, pregnancy and immunity.  I love this idea because it is just using natural foods to help boost your system and they are so easy to add to your diet via smoothies, baking or as a topping.  I am trying to do this more and more and am on a journey of learning about what different foods can do for you - it's a big wide world!  Of course, you can create these blends yourself or buy specific items to help you with whatever you need, I just like the convenience of getting directly from The Wholesome Co AND ranging from $29.99 and $39.99 I am not sure you could buy all the ingredients for that!

Here's my recipe for my boosted coconut yogurt, feel free to omit the immunity blend, or if you'd like to try, use 'balanceproject' as a code for 15% off.  This is not a sponsored blog by the way, I just love this stuff!

Boosted Berry Coconut Yogurt
1/2 cup coconut yogurt (I used Raglan Strawberry & Acai flavour)
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup ice
1 TBS chia seeds
1 heaped TBS immune health blend (see above)
a few TBS almond milk to add moisture for blending

Pop everything in the bullet and give it a whiz!   Add to your fave granola, or top with your fave granola - whichever you prefer. 

The Ultimate Green Smoothie

Give your body what it needs with this sweet & delicious smoothie filled with green good stuff.
A great intro to Green Smoothies.

Serves 2

1 cup almond or coconut milk
1 x banana
1 x pear
5 x green grapes
1 x golden kiwifruit
1 cup kale & spinach blend
1 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp LSA mix
1 cup ice

Blend until completely smooth and top with some delicious crunchy granola or nuts.

Acai Bowl Recipe

If you are like me, you hear a lot of hype about acai.
Acai bowls seem to be everywhere, well at least all over instagram.  Because I am often searching for healthy, nutritious recipes, the acai bowl features heavily.  So what is acai?  It is a berry found in the Amazon (sounds exotic already) and is deemed a superfood because of the myriad of wonders it does.  The benefits boast aiding digestion, promoting skin health, boosting your immune system, helping your heart and has anti ageing effects. Plus, hell, it's purple. Say no more - I'M IN!

With all this in mind, today I decided to make my own Acai Bowl. It was a hit (with me) and I'm pretty sure Acai will become a regular superfood in our household. First up you are going to need some Acai Powder. I opted for an organic powder by Goodhealth, which is stocked at my local small town pharmacy.

I played around for a little while today to see what worked, and came up with a really delicious bowl for lunch. Feel free to play around and put your favourite toppings on, be your own experiment and enjoy!  In my very short Acai Bowl career I have learned that for a successful bowl, you need a creamy, thick smoothie base and some nice textures on top, think crunch and texture.

Acai Bowl Recipe

Blitz together the following:
1 x banana
1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
2 Tablespoons acai powder
1 Tablespoon nut butter (I used Peanut Butter)
Up to 1/2 cup coconut milk or almond milk (adjust amount until you get a creamy, thick consistency)

Pour into a bowl and then have some fun decorating! 

Toppings:
Blueberries & Banana or other fresh fruit
A crunchy nut & seed cereal or granola - I love Cathedral Cove Raw Paleo Super Cereal
Almonds
Chia Seeds
Goji berries
Coconut
More nut butter if like me, you love it!

Let me know if you have a favourite acai bowl recipe, I'd love to see how everyone uses this wonderful superfood.

J xx

Pancake Sunday! A DF/GF/SF Recipe to Save.

We love pancakes in this house. It's been a long standing tradition to have pancakes (or waffles) on Sunday.  We had a great recipe for good old fashioned pancakes with white flour & sugar.

When I started changing my lifestyle and eating, pancakes disappeared from the menu for a while - until I decided to experiment with some healthier versions.   I consulted Google and found a recipe by The Paleo Running Momma and decided to try my own from scratch. Instead of white flour, a tapioca flour and coconut flour mix is used, along with mashed banana, eggs and coconut milk.   SUCCESS!   These Paleo banana coconut flour pancakes are so perfectly fluffy, moist and sweet that you won't believe they're grain free, dairy free, and refined sugar free!

They were light, fluffy, rose well and absolutely delicious. The boys downed them pretty quick, I was so happy with them. Below is the recipe, which is the original from Paleo Running Momma with only 1 small change (I used rice malt syrup instead of maple).

Please don't assume that just because these are 'Paleo' that they aren't as good as 'the real thing'. Give them a go. It's a great alternative if you're GF or are trying to stay away from white flour - or even if you're not.

I get creative with toppings - some of our faves are fresh cut fruit salad with coconut yogurt, frozen berries heated in a pan for 10 mins and poured on top (YUM) and todays experiment was banana, pear and peanut butter.  They are wonderful plain with maple syrup too.

Here's the recipe!

Paleo Banana Pancakes

Ingredients

• 3 eggs

• 2 small/med overripe bananas mashed well

• 1/2 cup almond or coconut milk

• 1-2tbsp pure maple syrup

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 6Tbsp coconut flour

• 3Tbsp tapioca flour (buckwheat flour also works well)

• 1/2tsp baking soda

• Pinch salt

• coconut oil for greasing pan/griddle

Instructions

1. Whisk together all wet ingredients. Combine the dry ingredients separately, then add them to the wet mixture and stir until well combined and smooth.

2. Heat a fly pan over med low/med heat. These pancakes will cook more evenly if they cook on a lower setting for a bit longer.  They will burn if too hot!

3. Coat the pan with a thin layer of coconut oil, no too much, since you will add more after each batch.

4. Spoon the batter by about 3-4 tbsp carefully into the hot pan and smooth into an even circle, 3-4 inches in diameter. Do not crowd! You can keep the cooked pancakes on a parchment lined baking sheet in 200 degree oven until ready to eat.

5. Allow each pancake to cook on one side until edges are dry, bubbles form on the surface and the bottom is deep golden. Carefully flip and cook the second side until golden. Repeat for all pancakes, greasing the pan lightly with coconut oil between batches and adjusting the heat as necessary.

4 Must Try Chia Pudding Recipes!

There are a few things that have become absolute staples in our house over the past 9 months, and chia pudding is one of them. So simple, easy and yummy.  Plus, did you know Chia seeds are higher in Omega 3 that Salmon? Super duper good for you. They also absorb liquid, so you can pretty much create any flavour you want with liquid - and then just add the chia seeds to give it bulk.

I have made many renditions of Chia Pudding, you can literally do anything, and I have.

I've come up with a few absolute favourites that I'm going to share below, but first things first - I'm going to give you a recipe for a basic, plan vanilla pudding, and then you can use that as a foundation to build on.   You can't go wrong with Blueberry or Chocolate Peanut Butter, plus I've just made a special edition pud using Misty DayPlant Potions tonic powder.

Which will you try first?

Basic Chia Pudding

2 cups coconut milk (unsweetened)
1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 tsp maple syrup or rice malt syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Blitz or whisk together everything except the chia seeds. Once blended, add the chia seeds and whisk again.
Pop in a jar and refrigerate for an hour.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Pudding (my fave)

2 cups coconut milk (unsweetened)
1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 tsp maple syrup or rice malt syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 TBS cacao powder
1 TBS natural peanut butter

Prep your jar(s) by putting a little peanut butter in the bottom.
Blitz together coconut milk, syrup, cacao, vanilla and peanut butter.
Add chia seeds and mix with a whisk, pour into jar on top of the peanut butter.
Refrigerate for an hour

Blueberry & Vanilla Chia Pudding (Aiden's fave)

2 cups coconut milk (unsweetened)
1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 tsp maple syrup or rice malt syrup
1 tsp tsp vanilla
1/2 cup blueberries

Prep your jar(s) by putting a 1/4 cup blueberries in the bottom.
Blitz together coconut milk, syrup, vanilla and and 1/4 cup blueberries. Save a couple to go on top!
Add chia seeds and mix with a whisk, pour into jar on top of the whole blueberries.
Refrigerate for an hour

Misty Day Chia Pudding with Strawberries

2 cups coconut milk (unsweetened)
1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 tsp maple syrup or rice malt syrup
1 tsp tsp vanilla
1 TBS Misty Day tonic
* I used 'Moxie Brew' which is cacao, beetroot & asparagus
1/4 cup frozen strawberries
Blitz together coconut milk, syrup, vanilla and the tonic.
Add chia seeds and mix with a whisk, pour into jar and place some strawberries on top - they will sink, this is fine.
Refrigerate for an hour

Egg & Vege Slice

We have a few staples in our house that have been around for donkeys years. We all have them, reliable family favourites that you make time and again. One of our favourites is Egg Slice. I started making it when I was pregnant as freezer meals as it freezes so perfectly and you can pack so much into it. Even when I make it now I usually double up and freeze one for when I can't be bothered to cook!  The vegetable content is dependant on whatever is in my fridge at the time, you can switch out any veggies for your family faves.  Usually added to the below I would have capsicum/peppers and zucchini as well.

You will get better taste if you use free range eggs. We are lucky to have 5 chickens on our property who lay the most amazing eggs, Aiden likes to go and collect the eggs before I make it and he often helps as it's a very quick and easy recipe.  It should take no more than 45 mins including the 30 min bake time.

As I'm trying to stay away from higher carbs, I decided to try making it with almond flour instead of plain white flour and low and behold, it was BETTER than the original. WIN!  I wrote down the winning recipe straight after dinner, here it is!

Really yummy served with avocado or fresh tomatoes, or side green salad.

Egg & Vegetable Slice

6-8 free range eggs
1/4 cup oil

Roughly 2 cups chopped veggies of any variety.
I used:
1/2 cup Brocoli
1/2 cup Cauli flower
1 grated carrot
1/2 tin corn kernals (no sugar added)
1/2 onion
1/2 cup almond flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
salt and pepper to season

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius, line your dish with baking paper (no mess after!)

2. Whisk together wet ingredients

3. Combine veges with dry ingredients

4. Mix wet ingredients into dry, stir well

5. Pour into prepared dish and bake for 30 mins

Enjoy!