2013 November

Raw Chocolate Balls

November 28, 2013 By Meg With 16 comments

BallPopsHand Bliss Balls, Chocolate Balls, ‘Rum’ Balls, Tuffles; whatever you like to call them – they are delicious! There are approximately 4 million recipes online for different versions of these, and here’s why I like mine.

1. My recipe uses no dates. I don’t really have a problem with dates eaten in moderation, they are delicious and a natural fruit. They are however extremely sweet, and I find can often take over the flavour of raw desserts.

2. These balls are PACKED full of protein, good fats and nutrition from the nuts, seeds and tahini.

3. They are not overly sweet, and make use of the wonderful cinnamon, not only for flavour but to help with balancing blood sugar.

4. They are incredible easy to make, versatile, and use ingredients that you most likely have hanging around in your cupboard.

5. They are delicious and family friendly! If you need them for school lunches, just sub out the nuts with extra seeds.

BallPopIvy

So there you have it. Five great reasons to try out these balls. We have a birthday party coming up!!! (very exciting – any ideas welcome!) and so I fashioned them into ‘pops’ with the use of a fancy straw – kid appeal – very high – job done.

½ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup hemp seeds (or quinoa flakes or pepitas)

¼ cup brazil nuts (or macadamias, cashews etc)

¼ cup tahini or almond butter (I used black tahini)

2 tbs chia or flax seeds

¼ cup coconut–desiccated, plus extra for rolling

2 ½ tbs raw cacao powder

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ cup of rice syrup or honey, or to taste

A pinch of sea salt

Up to a tbs water – depending on consistency

Blitz the nuts and seeds in a food processor or blender. …

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Home-made Oral Rehydration Solution – AKA Electrolyte Cocktail

November 15, 2013 By Meg With 6 comments

ORSclose The distinctive taste of Gastrolyte, Hydralyte, or your preferred brand of oral rehydration solution is unmistakable. I have been lucky enough to visit India a couple of times (LOVE India), and so am familiar with this. So when my plans were thrown into disarray today due to a vomiting bub last night, I decided to do a bit of DIY.

Of course you should always consult your health care practitioner, but in situations where you would normally use some sort of rehydration liquid or powder, here is a home-made option. Not only will you save yourself a trip down to the chemist, but you will avoid the artificial additives and aspartame too – great! It is also wonderful post-workout to replenish and rehydrate, although I would recommend you tone down the sweetener and salt a little in this case.

The main elements to be replenished are sodium and glucose, with potassium and other minerals also playing their role. The sodium in this recipe comes in the form of natural, unrefined sea salt. This kind of salt (as opposed to table salt) is vital to a number of processes in the body, including carrying nutrients to your cells, regulating blood pressure, assisting connection between the brain and the muscles, and it is a major component of blood plasma, lymph and extracellular fluid. A lovely good quality salt such as a Himalayan sea salt has a beautiful natural balance of sodium, chloride, potassium and magnesium, to name a few, giving it alone the ability to restore lost nutrients. For the glucose component I have chosen honey or rapadura sugar (panela). Often we are searching for a low GI sweetener, but for the purposes of getting the goods back into my little one, I wanted a faster result. And by choosing rapadura sugar …

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Vegetarian Thai Laksa with a twist

November 1, 2013 By Meg With 13 comments

Laksa Laksa is the best. Fragrant, fresh broth with noodles – what’s not to love? I have been craving one all week, and so today I am sharing a pumpkin and tofu laksa which is sure to be a crowd pleaser. And what better way to use up leftover pumpkins from Halloween! The twist? I have used kelp noodles in place of a more traditional rice or egg noodle.

Kelp noodles are made from, surprise surprise, kelp! This is a sea vegetable containing loads of calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron. It is also a good source of iodine which is essential for body metabolism and healthy thyroid function. The noodles themselves are made from kelp, seaweed salt and water, so they are gluten free (and almost everything else free!), but their neutral taste allows them to take on big flavours in cooking.

laksaingredients

This particular recipe I have adapted from the amazing Jamie Oliver (I am a HUGE fan). I love that he is all about easy, fresh food; and also am so inspired by his work with promoting healthy food for kids. The man is a legend! Anyway, I love this recipe as it’s quick and easy, but I did change a few things around to suit. The secret to the speed of this recipe is the grating of the pumpkin. I hand grated mine, but you could also just run it through the food processor – much quicker! There are a lot of ingredients here, but the process is very simple, so once you have done your prep it’s pretty much done!

Serves 2

150g of firm, organic, non-GMO tofu, cut into 1 inch sized chunks

A drizzle of tamari (for the tofu)

400ml vegetable stock/broth

1/2 butternut pumpkin (butternut squash), peeled and grated or food processed

1 large clove …

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