Bloobs, my affectionate pet name for one of the best berries on the planet. Blueberries.
Antioxidants rich, delicious, and blue, rare for any food. These blueberries and cream truffles are dead easy and so good. They’re really affordable when you make your own luscious coconut butter. These truffles are not only nomtastic but also pretty healthy, were talking ample fibre and healthy fats from the coconut paired with antioxidant rich bloobs and dark chocolate.
1 C fresh blueberries (you can also use frozen just thaw them out first)
3 tbsp raw honey
½ C paleo friendly raw chocolate or chocolate chips
Instructions
Melt coconut butter in a double boiler or water bath.
In a high powered blender or food processor, combine coconut butter, berries and honey.
In your double boiler or water bath, melt the chocolate.
Use a small size ice cream scoop to make little blueberry balls and coat with melted chocolate.
Allow to set in the fridge for at least an hour if you can wait that long!
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It was my birthday on Saturday, I almost made myself a cake, almost. But I succumbed to laziness and opted to eat ice cream instead. It was a fun day and I would tell you how old I am but…it’s a secret.
A woman’s age is best kept a mystery anyhow.
The next day, was my fathers birthday and also the day my little babe took his first wee steps. How very exciting!
TA-DA! Winter doldrums be gone, chocolate cream pie has arrived to banish you until next week! For real, what’s better than a hazelnut-almond shortbread crust topped with decadent chocolate laden with a top secret ingredient, layered with airy whipped coconut cream?
Secret ingredient: Sweet potato has passed the test and gone completely undetected by my guinea pig, twice. Have no fear, the small amount of sweet potato adds oomph and body without any characteristic taste whatsoever. Kinda like sweet potato brownies, only better.
Plus you don’t even have to bake it and the longer it stays in the fridge the better it gets, win and win.
Another excellent cure for the bare bottomed blues of winter is to rearrange all the furniture in your entire house.
My house is very small so this was easy and deeply satisfying. Not a bad excuse to clean sneaky lurking dust bunnies either. I realized there was a giant pointless shelf in my kitchen which did nothing but occupy space and clutter. Be gone useless shit, I don’t need you anymore.
Have you ever rearranged a room and thought, how did I ever not have it this way? How the hell could I ever have lived with this room any other way?!
Sitting in my newly arranged living room, noshing on a luscious creamy piece of pie and watching my giant wolf dog allow my baby to hug his neck, life doesn’t seem like it could get much better. But just like the way the furniture was fine before, things can always get better.
1 C roasted hazlenuts ( you can substitute for almonds or almond meal if you wish)
2 Tbs coconut sugar or raw cane sugar
½ C coconut oil, melted
¼ C raw cacao paste OR powder
1 C raw cashews, soaked for at least an hour and up to 8
½ tsp vanilla extract
⅓ tsp sea salt
½ C sweet potato, steamed or roasted
3 Tbs honey or maple syrup
1 can coconut milk, thoroughly chilled to separate the coconut cream from the liquid
Instructions
In a blender or food processor, pulverize the almonds and hazelnuts into a fine meal consistency. In a large bowl mix with sugar and 2 Tbs coconut oil. Press this mix into a pie plate making sure to bring it up nice and high on the sides and press firmly to set in place. Set aside in the fridge or freezer while you make the filling.
In a blender or food processor add cashews, sweet potato, cacao, coconut oil, vanilla, salt and honey or maple syrup. Blend until smooth and add about 2 Tbs of the liquid from your coconut milk. Pour onto the crust and allow to set in the fridge for half and hour at least.
To make the coconut whipped cream, add the separated cream to a stand mixer or whisk by hand until light and fluffy. Pour over chocolate layer and chill before serving.
Happy Solstice everyone! The longest night is upon us, and I think we’re all ready to welcome back the light. This time of year, for me, is all about inner reflection, looking back on the last years happenings. It’s an exciting time to realize the potential that you can harness in 365 days. This time last year I had a little baby bump and had no idea what to expect but now I have this sweet little angel and it all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. I am so in love with life and the capacity for us all to achieve great things, to full fill our wildest dreams, to learn new skills, practice old ones and reformulate our outlook so that it serves us all the better.
After a day of frolicking around the city, people watching in the busy shopping mall and running around trying to get all the last minute goodies taken care of, I’m so glad that we’re celebrating solstice this year. The mad rush of the 24th is no longer looming because it just doesn’t matter, phew. Tomorrow morning we’ll get up slow, drink baileys and coffee, make a quiche or a giant frittata and open gifts while my dad films the whole thing. We’re roasting a beautiful free range turkey, complete with all the fix ins, and for the one and only time this year our entire family will sit down together and share a meal. I’m so incredibly grateful for all of this, I know what a monumental blessing it is to have a loving family, I wish everyone had that.
Now without further adieu, these little imitation ferrero rochers are delightful and a great little treat to spread joy with to all. I like to plop them into an egg carton for a makeshift box of chocolates. Of course, these beauties are free of unknown nasty preservatives or other weird ingredients, and I personally like them better than their commercial counterparts. All they need is some fancy gold wrapping and a little stick, et voila!
I adore cupcakes and I don’t think I’m alone. These precious parcels are totally grain free and incredibly moist, they are also beautiful to look at, which certainly doesn’t hurt. I’m glad this experiment worked out so well. I always try and get creative and invent things and sometimes there’s a flop. I tried to invent 3-ingredient hazelnut cookies which actually ended up being one giant cookie that didn’t even stick together. People say less ingredients = less complicated, I beg to differ. But today was a success and I am officially re- in love with matcha. I went on a huge matcha bender when I was pregnant and trying not to drink coffee. It was fun but I kinda overdid it. Now that I’ve realized matcha lends a lovely earthy fresh taste to baking, along with awesome antioxidants I think the dilemma is solved. Baby Mav is incredibly jealous of my cupcake and trying to steal it from me as I type this. No cupcake for you, baby!
The template for this recipe is really adaptable, I’ve used it for all sorts of muffins/cupcakes, like these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. The vanilla cashew cream is the same recipe as my bite sized paleo brownies. Lately I’m obsessed with pistachios, I just think they are the most beautiful nut, I love adding them to salads like this one and of course their green and violet hue looks stunning with the earthy green of the matcha. You can find the original recipe template here.
Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes with Vanilla Cashew Cream and Crushed Pistachios
Author: Chantelle
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
Cupcakes-1 C almond meal or flour
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 Tbs matcha green tea powder
2 Tbs raw cane sugar or honey
½ tsp lemon zest
2 Tbs coconut oil
1 egg
1 mashed banana
1 Tbs almond or coconut milk OR ½ C if you want to leave out the banana
Frosting-½ C raw cashews, soaked 6-8 hrs
¼ C water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs honey
Topping-1/4 C crushed pistachios
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F
Mix together dry ingredients, almond meal, baking soda, salt,matcha and sugar
Mix together wet ingredients, coconut oil, egg,banana, coconut or almond milk, combine with dry ingredients and don't over mix.
Fill cupcake papers ¾ of the way up, bake for 20-25 minutes
In a blender or food processor add the strained cashews, coconut oil, vanilla, honey and a pinch of salt, slowly add the water until the consistency is thick yet spreadable and super smooth and creamy.
Let the cupcakes cool before spreading with cashew cream frosting, top with crushed pistachios.
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All in all I’d say these are some damn healthy and satisfying cupcakes, as always it makes my heart skip a beat to hear what you think. Peace & love homies.
If a magic genie granted me three wishes, one of them would be to peer inside the growing flesh of fruit of a pomegranate. They are such and interesting fruit with their many pockets filled with little surprises. Garnet jeweled seeds, this ancient fruit is rumoured to have been the real forbidden fruit. The sheer pleasure in eating a pomegranate fruit is worth the cost every now and then. Usually it coincides with a conscious moment of how very far some of our food travels. Our family certainly wouldn’t mind living somewhere pomegranates grow, maybe someday. Until then, a luxurious raw chocolate bark adorned with the fruit of royalty will do the trick.
Health Benefits of Pomegranates
-1 pomegranate is equivalent to about 40% of the daily recommended intake of Vitamin C
–Antioxidants in pomegranates are powerfully protective against free radicals which wreak havoc on our cells. Pomegranates have more antioxidants than blueberries, acai berry and grapes.
– Reduce Inflammation One study discovered pomegranate actually decreased production of a cartilage destroying enzyme, potential use as a treatment for osteoarthritis and maintaining joint integrity and proper function.
–Heart health Pomegranate juice has been shown to slow the formation of arterial plaque and even reverse it. They’re also beneficial for those suffering from high blood pressure.
1 C raw cacao paste OR ¾C cacao butter + 6 Tbs cacao powder
⅓ C maple syrup or honey
1 tsp coconut oil
¼ tsp sea salt
1 pomegranate, flesh removed
Instructions
In a double boiler melt cacao paste (or butter) with maple syrup and coconut oil. Mix in the cacao powder once everything is melted (if your not using cacao paste).
Prepare a baking dish lined with parchment paper, pour your chocolate mixture onto the paper and spread evenly.
Top with pomegranate seeds and sea salt.
Allow to set for an hour or so in the fridge.
Store the bark in the fridge if you live in a warm climate.
Self love can be hard to practice when you’ve got a whole lot of other people to love and take care of. Often our priorities contort and we put ourselves dead last. I think the paleo and primal lifestyles need to entail reflective processes that awaken our softer sides. Our hunter gatherer ancestors didn’t work as hard as many people think, the average “work week” was around 15-20 hours(1). This left plenty of free time to explore, have fun, make art, music, dance and just ponder the profundity of existence and what it means to be alive. I strongly wish our culture could return to its ancestral roots in this way, these acts of pleasure not only strengthen the self but also the community as a whole. We’ve been lead to believe that if we aren’t working and we aren’t consuming, then we are useless and bound to the confines of laziness. In whatever little ways we can, it’s important to reconnect to our roots, to take the time to create or to just bask in stillness, a rare creature nowadays. Personally I feel really happy and connected when I can get my dance on, not in da club or whatever but just in my living room or an empty field. What activities do you feel liberate you from the confines of the work and consume cultural dogma we live in?
Most don’t grow up in a way that teaches us how to listen to our bodies and know when we’ve pushed to hard and gone too far. So sit down, relax, have a piece of ridiculously healthy cheesecake, those hunter gatherers would’ve died for this luscious energy filled goodness. This recipe is fairly involved but the results are stunning and well worth it. I would normally make something like this for a celebration but this time I really just wanted a luxurious rich snack without any reason or logic- why not?
1 C date paste or around 8 whole pitted dates, soaked in warm water for ½ hour
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs cacao powder
½ C fresh squeezed orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
½ tsp sea salt
½ C cacao paste (unprocessed cacao not yet separated into powder and butter)
½ C coconut oil
½ C maple syrup
½ tsp flaky sea salt or himalayan rock salt
1 mandarin orange, peeled and sectioned (optional)
Instructions
For the crust, prepare a springform pan 7 or 9 inches and place a piece of parchment on the base with the edges underneath (this is just to help remove the cheesecake from the base)
In a food processor or high powered blender add almonds and hazelnuts, strained and rinsed, add dates and about 1 Tbs of their soaking water, blend until you reach a smooth and uniform consistency.
Add vanilla extract, salt and cacao powder and blend together, you may need to add a few Tbs of water or almond milk to get things moving and fully incorporated.
Press this mixture into the base of your pan and set aside in the fridge or freezer.
For the filling, heat a pot of water and place a heat proof glass or metal bowl over top. Add cacao paste, coconut oil and maple syrup to the bowl and allow it to slowly melt, stirring every now and then.
In a food processor or blender add soaked, rinsed cashews, orange zest and orange juice and blend until smooth. When everything in the bowl is melted add ¾ of the cacao mixture to the cashews, blend until super smooth and creamy.
Spread filling evenly on top of the crust and swirl remaining chocolate sauce on top, optionally you can also coat the mandarin pieces in chocolate and sprinkle some rock salt on top for serving.
Allow the cheesecake a few hours in the fridge to set, you could also put it in the freezer if you're in a hurry, just allow it to thaw out a bit before serving.
Hey I'm Chantelle, my alter ego would be a mermaid if I wasn't such a terrible swimmer. I love writing authentically and cooking in my pyjamas. My favourite pastimes include eating avocados, travelling the world and hanging out with a toddler.
