Weekend Recipe: Carob Protein Bites in 5 minutes. Sugar, dairy, gluten, egg and grain free

So first up I'm gonna say that this is not my recipe. It is damn delicious, effortlessly easy, and free of most things people seem to be either avoiding or intolerant to these days so Win Win Win. The recipe comes from Heather over at Sweetly Raw

Similar to me, Heather was once following a raw vegan diet high in natural sugars for a few years until she hit some road blocks with her health and began an entirely different way of eating in order to heal her body. She now eats more fats and proteins, among other things, and so this little snack or after-dinner treat is perfect for her, me, and everyone else wanting something sweet that's also super charged with nutrition.

What 'cha gonna need:

1/2 cup almond butter

1/4 cup carob powder

4 tablespoons vanilla protein powder

1 tablespoon coconut milk

5 drops stevia, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

---------------

4 tablespoons coconut flakes

3 tablespoons slivered almonds

+ Stir all ingredients together (from the first section) in a bowl, adding the oil last.

+ Stir in the coconut flakes and almonds. 

+ Spread the mixture into a plastic wrap lined container (I used a container that could hold a sandwich). 

+ Chill in the fridge until it firms up, or even store in the freezer.

+ Chop into bite sized pieces, sit back and relax whilst your taste buds do the talking.

My notes you might find useful...

+ I used macadamia butter in place of almond butter. Yummo this is my favourite nut spread, and the only one in my pantry at the time.

+ I didn't use almonds either as I had none. Only coconut flakes. Still crunchy and delish. Use your taste buds cues here - if you love gojis berries, cacao noibs, chopped nuts or something else, give them a go!

+ My protein powder is sweetened with stevia so no additional drops were needed (it would have been way OTT on the sweet stuff if I had)

So there you go. I made this last night and I kid you not, it took me less than 5 minutes to grab the ingredients from the pantry, whip it all together, squash it in a dish and bung it in the freezer. I got about a dozen little bite-sized pieces from this quantity. B and I ate a few after my stuffed mushrooms attempt at dinner - not bad at all if I do say so myself.

Anyways, off to grab some ingredients from the markets right now and get into my study when I'm back. Have a fabuloso weekend. And if you haven't signed up to my newsletter that goes out today, make sure you do so you get it next Friday and can put your feet up with a cuppa and read the latest blog goss, nutirtion know-how's, recipes, tips and more. Ensure you get the latest here.


Christie 
xx

Got 10minutes to make an awesome Carob Cake?

Last month Brock and I celebrated our anniversary (remember my post here about our memorable evening lying in bed with him feeding me mango pieces as my exhaustion had hit rock bottom?), and as it was only a  week after his birthday (when we shared this amazingly delicious and super easy Coconut Cream Pie), we never celebrated our anniversary with a cake (and I'm not a cake-whore having to make one for every occasion... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy doing so because it's always a win-win-win; I win by getting to spend my time getting creative in the kitchen and having a ball doing so... the person who I am making a cake for win's obviously - they get a cake... and then everyone else wins by getting to share in the marvelous delectable creation made [and yes, that includes me again too])

So when B said "let's have a cake to celebrate our anniversary" I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it earlier! Wanting to come up with something super quick (I had assessments coming out my ears as usual, and some cakes can take a day or so; that and we wanted to eat cake pronto!) and something inexpensive using as much straight out of the pantry as I could (as these assessments come with hefty school fees), this is what I came up with!

4-Ingredient Carob Cake and 4-Ingredient Carob Frosting

In the cute shape of a little love heart, small enough to share, but big enough that half was plenty :)

You will need:

1 1/2 cups almond meal
3/4 cup raisins
1 tsp carob powder
2-3 Tbsp fresh orange juice

Blend using a small food processor until it is all combined and looks deliciously gooey enough to eat straight out the container (well you all know my rule by now - you gotta be taste testing!)

Then mould, push, poke and prod your mixture into a (coconut-oiled) small cake tin (this love heart was no bigger than the size of a CD; the plate in the picture is a tea cup plate). Alternatively, mould it into a square or a circle shaped cake straight onto a small plate.

For the frosting you will need:

2 small avocados (1 extra large one will also work)

2 medjool dates (chopped finely)

2 tsp carob powder

2 tsp honey (agave, maple syrup, stevia, etc)

Mash your avocado to speed up the process here. Then blend all ingredients into a small food processor (I find these work better than blender as the avo gets stuck easily). Keep blending until your frosting is smooth and creamy. You can add a drizzle of water if need be but be warned here; too much and you're then going to need to add more avo again. Start with 1/4tsp water and go from there if you find you need it.

Frost your cake and decorate as you wish. I only had cacao nibs and wanting something red to brighten it up, I chopped up a few dried cranberries. Goji berries would look cool also, or fresh strawberries! Yum!

 If you're sharing with a loved one, cut your heart in half and enjoy a delicious afternoon tea or dessert in the evening :)

Buon-appetit!

Bananarama

I leave to go on retreat for a week today so thought I'd put up a quick post to let you all know, and give you a delicious recipe to try at home.

I call it my BANANA BOWL - and each day it varies slightly. It's my brekkie of champions and I eagerly jump out of bed each day to go for my morning run and refuel with this afterwards.



Today I used 3 regular bananas and 3 frozen bananas for an extra creamy freezy yummy consistency - perfect after a warm sunny run this morning.

(Depending on the size of my delectable organic bananas, I can use anywhere between 5 and 8 bananas for my BANANA BOWL).

To that I added a few ice cubes, a little water and then 1 tsp lucuma podwer, 1 tsp maca powder, and 2 tsp carob powder.

DELICIOUS!

Variations: cacao powder instead of carob, mesquite powder, sweeteners if you like such as agave, raw honey, yacon syrup... or if you've only got bananas go with that!