I’m suddenly obsessed with chia seeds, I’ve made this pudding 3 times this week and even J said it’s the best he’s ever had. Much to my surprise he gobbled up nearly all of it the first time. I’ve never taken him to be a superfood kinda guy, though he is my superman…swoon. The things I love about these little seeds is the satisfying pop they provide which is hard to come by elsewhere. The kiwi gives an addition textural orgasm and together, the berries, the coconut, all that goodness just makes you feel like a million bucks. I was so inspired by these dainty seeds that I researched the heck out of ’em and wrote a post devoted solely to their benefits, check it out here.
Mix in coconut milk, chia seeds and coconut flakes
Let the seeds soak and expand for minimum 30 minutes
Serve with sliced kiwi, coconut flakes and bee pollen
3.2.2802
I’ve been writing a lot for different websites surrounding health and nutrition. It’s really fun and I learn at least twenty new things every day. It inspires me to know that people are thirsty for knowledge in this realm. I think it’s safe to say the majority of people are becoming disillusioned by big pharma’s shortcomings. We’re only now seeing the implications of massive scale agriculture, pesticide use and commercial meat production. I’m still blown away by the fact that the first ‘supermarket’ only arrived on the scene in 1950.
Oh my, Oh Henry, Oh yeah! These little duddies are way better than the original, it’s so hard to eat just one, they’re just so perfectly gooey and crunchy and covered with chocolate, oh my. Bribe your babes to trade you their crummy candy for these wholesome yet indulgent little treats. Instead of roasted peanuts I used roasted cashews, which taste better and offer a few more health benefits. They say one serving of cashews is equivalent in mood boosting therapeutic properties to a dose of prozac, which you might need after seeing all the heinous halloween costumes. Has anyone seen the sexy ebola nurse costume going around…for real.
It’s almost Hallow’s Eve, and that means treats and low lying creepy fog lurking around every dark corner with only the tips of the barren trees poking out. Goblins and ghouls are almost as scary as the copious amounts of GMOs being fed to the littles. Remember when candy bars were made with just regular old sugar. A part of me is so upset that halloween has been hijacked by monsanto, but another part of my heart just wants to work harder to provide alternatives. This year I’m going to make little bliss balls and attach my contact details, we live in a small town so hopefully if any parents are freaked out they will contact me. Luckily I don’t have to worry just yet about my little guy getting into all that crazy candy, just his constant magnetic draw to the dogs water bowl.
In a food processor or high powered blender combine date paste, almond butter and coconut oil and blend until it starts to come together, add water until it is smooth but still quite thick.
In a square baking dish 8x8 spread an even layer of date paste caramel mix, top with roasted cashews and push the in to the caramel slightly just so they stick. Freeze this for at least an hour.
To make the chocolate coating, melt cacao butter or coconut oil over a double boiler, whisk in cacao powder, honey and salt.
When the caramel is sufficiently frozen, cut it into mini bars, the recipe makes about 18 little bars. Use a metal spatula to remove the bars from the dish and roll them around in the chocolate sauce until thoroughly coated.
Set aside and allow bars to set in the freezer or fridge.
I don’t always know what to write about. On this food blog, which I suppose is entirely supposed to focus on food, that which nourishes us and how to best enjoy it. Though I do consider myself, and all of you for that matter, judges of good taste, I also feel like holy fuck, we are so lucky. First of all, to eat and have no real worries about where our next meal is coming from, but on top of that blessing, to photograph this nourishment, to share it far and wide. Whoa. I look at these numbers sometimes, I watch the real time on google analytics of all the people from all over the place checking out this meal that I created and wrote about and photographed and digested and gave back to the earth. It’s surreal to me just how deeply we are all connected, each and every one of us. Even that neighbour that you fucking can’t stand and your uptight stupid know it all boss, the primary investor at Monsanto and the guy who tried to shoot Harper yesterday. Does that perpetuate a feeling of compassion within us, or does it strike a chord of anger? I think for me it’s a bit of both, recently there was a study done on the worlds population and if all the food were divided equally, how many calories each person would be allotted daily. 2700. 2700 calories is plenty, for anyone, not to mention a child or elderly person just wouldn’t be consuming that many calories, so it would all balance itself out. Is the possibility of this statistic even real? It would seem so, yet the gluttony which rears its ugly head around every corner stifles the souls knowledge of the potential for every single one of us to be fed. Nourishment, to me, simply doesn’t always feel complete when I know there are hungry brothers and sisters out there. I want to feed them all, just do it, plant gorilla gardens everywhere and spread seeds like STI’s around every corner. Though i’m far from being in any epicentre of the hip happenings, I guess the first step is to just act locally, think globally. There are ideas brewing in my head and heart as to how this is possible. I want to let them stew and form themselves better before blurting anything out. But I feel a potential of thought is greatest when actions show themselves to be louder than words.
Now about these muffins, I loathe a dry muffin, honestly I have never enjoyed a wheat muffin except for the ones they make at Dominion Cafe, pear ginger white chocolate, I have to make a paleo version. Normally conventional muffins are so bleck, dry and dense and just blah. Well, not these little pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Its likely I put way too many chocolate chips in them, speaking of sharing food maybe I can give organic chocolate chips out at halloween instead of GMO candy. I digress, these muffins are excellent, they’re moist, delicately spiced and filled with chocolate. Alongside a cup of coffee, they are like a morning bear hug. The basis of this muffin recipe is borrowed from these delicious blue berry muffins.
You know when you want a brownie, but you don’t want a whole brownie, well that’s where these little bites come in. They satisfy your brownie tooth without going overboard, that is, if you can refrain from eating them all. Really you could without feeling too guilty, since you use dates instead of sugar and they’re totally grain free. I was pretty excited about my latest thrift store score, which was a mini muffin tin, who knew making all things mini could be so fun.
Yes, you guessed it that lovely rose plate was another thrift store score, straight outta grandma’s cabinet. The frosting on these bites could fool Tony the Tiger, its creamy luxurious and spiked with ample vanilla and soft honey notes.
Paleo Bite Sized Brownies with Vanilla Honey Cashew Frosting
Author: Chantelle
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 14
Ingredients
½ C date paste, softened in warm water for a few minutes.
2 Tbs+2 Tbs melted coconut oil
1 egg
2 Tbs cacao powder
1 Tbs coconut flour
½ tsp sea salt
½ C raw cashews, soaked 6-8 hrs
⅓ C water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs+ drizzle honey
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F
Combine the softened date paste, coconut oil and egg.
In a separate bowl combine the cacao powder, coconut flour and salt. Mix into the wet ingredients.
Drop brownie dough by the Tbs. into your mini muffin tin.
Bake for 10 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.
When the brownie bites have cooled slightly, spoon a dollop of frosting on top and drizzle with a little extra honey.
These little raw tarts and adorned with the last local fruits of the season, oh how it pains me to type that. The sheer beauty of the grapes, blackberries and plums demanded something precious and extravagant to adorn. What better than a little chocolate tartlet with an intensely amazing creamy centre, no added sugar, not necessary, just an emphasis on the natural tastes present in every bite of bursting fruit. The base is brazil nuts and dates with raw cacao and the luscious filling is the smoothest creamiest vanilla cashew cream sweetened with a touch of wild honey. Absolute perfection I tell you my friends, just do yourselves a favour and make these for the people you love the most. They are little bites of heaven and I thought 12 would be enough to last a few days but I’m sorry to say they are too good and J has already devoured, errm, 5 in the last 12 hours, sigh. It’s okay though, because good things are meant to be enjoyed.
don’t mind my exceptionally old muffin tin…
It was the last farmers market on Wednesday and I went absolutely bonkers and bought ten of everything. I can’t say I hold any restraint or fiscal responsibility when I step foot on market grounds. The colours draw me in and my mind goes a mile a minute thinking of all the beautiful creations I could make and of all the hard work and love these organic farmers put into their food. I must do it all justice, it’s only proper. If I burn the garlic, I burn them, and I just couldn’t do that to these hard working passionate people. The tomatoes are at that point where they ooze unspoken songs begging to be used. The apples have finally arrived in all their glory. Grapes provoke stories of old, that dusty ephemeral morning harvest way back when, frozen fingers and the promise of wine. My mind wanders, I can’t help but swell with gratitude for all this bounty, memories flush of fall times past and how that same feeling always hits me almost all at once. Then I come home and lovingly unpack it all and actually take a picture of the contents of the fridge because it isn’t too often that it is so overflowing with possibilities. Dreams of my own someday garden start to dissipate and I am just content that other people do it, I wish I could cook them all dinner.
The first order of business this morning was to adorn everything with shiny bubbly blackberries. These Cookies and Cream Tarts do more than justice to blackberry beauty. Tomorrow we will bring some of these divine little tarts on a wild mushroom hunt in the proverbial woodland. Please people send me good juju so that I will find the treasure- yes the matsutake or pine mushrooms- they grow here in abundance, if you can find the spots that is. I’ve yet to hit upon a huge score but I know the next big patch could be just around the corner!
1 C brazil nuts (you could also use walnuts or almonds)
¾ date paste, softened in some warm water for a few minutes, or about 8 dates softened in warm water
½ tsp sea salt
2 Tbs+2Tbs melted coconut oil
2 Tbs raw cacao
1 C cashews, soaked for 6-8 hrs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract or ½ a vanilla bean pod,seeds scraped out
1 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbs wild honey
¼-1/2 C water
pinch sea salt
various local seasonal fruit- berries, grapes, pears,plums...
Instructions
In a food processor or blender add the brazil nuts, followed by the soaked dates,salt,2 Tbs coconut oil and cacao. Pulse until the nuts are totally broken down and it looks like brownie batter, nice and smooth.
Fill a muffin tin with this mixture about 1 Tbs per section. You can use paper muffin cups for easier removal. Press the mixture up the sides to form little cups. Put it in the freezer to set while you make the cream.
In a food processor or blender add strained cashews, vanilla, lemon,2 Tbs coconut oil, honey, salt and ¼ C of water. Blend on high until super super smooth, adding a touch more water until desired consistency is reached. You want it to mix easily and be light and creamy.
Remove muffin tin from freezer, if you didn't line the tin you may want to remove the formed cups before adding the filling. Just let the tarts sit out and unfreeze a bit before using a fork to scoop them out onto a plate.
Fill the tarts with a Tbs of cashew cream, top with preferred fruits, or nothing at all.
For a firmer filling, refrigerate for an hour before serving.
So stoked on this Paleo Banana Bread with Pears and Honeyed Chocolate Sauce, for reals, it’s gluten and grain free, super moist and indulgently delicious. All I wanted today (and most days) was something rich and chocolately, warm and comforting, with a nice hot chai, and it doesn’t get much better than this banana bread folks. We have these two bountiful pear trees bordering our driveway, most of them are still unripe but one was ready, I wanted to make something special with the first pear of many to come. The bottom of the bread is caramelized gooey pears, which is surprisingly easy to achieve with a little coconut sugar and oil, the loaf pops right out, truly worthy of a pat on the back, a nice book and a cozy blanket. Monday moods.
We had to go to the court house today for a little ‘business’, apparently babies aren’t normally guests at such places since no change table was present anywhere. All the serious lawyers were ogling Mavi’s monkey pants, and he had plenty of smiles to share with all. What a gift children give to the world with their endless joy. The little one is starting to eat some solids, we’re taking a bit of an unconventional route and holding off on the grains and fruits. Instead, pastured egg yolks and grass-fed beef liver are the first foods. Quite the stretch from Pablem and other processed baby gruel. The reasoning behind this is that babies don’t produce amylase, the enzyme needed to break down all carbohydrates. Babes are much better equipped to digest protein and fat. At about 6 months they don’t have any iron stores left from when they were still inside momma, stealing all her iron for their journey outward. Liver is rich in iron and many vitamins, and the egg yolk from pastured chickens is high in healthy brain building cholesterol and lutein. I’m grateful to have this knowledge for our son, I’m sure at his age I was downing cheerios and goldfish, and I actually remember those vanilla baby cookies that one would just suck on until they disintegrated, yum?
Banana Bread with Pears and Honeyed Chocolate Sauce
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients
For the banana bread
3 ripe bananas,mashed
2 eggs
1/4 C almond butter, raw or roasted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 Tbs+1 tsp coconut oil,melted
2 Tbs coconut sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 C dark chocolate chips
1 ripe pear, thinly sliced
1/3 C coconut flour
For the chocolate sauce
2 Tbs coconut oil, melted
2 Tbs cacao powder
2 Tbs honey
pinch of salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F or 170C
Combine bananas,eggs,almond butter,vanilla, baking soda,sea salt, coconut oil and 1 Tbs coconut sugar until smooth and creamy.
Add coconut flour and baking soda until well incorporated, then proceed to mix in the chocolate chips.
In a loaf pan spread 1 tsp coconut oil on all sides until well coated and sprinkle a Tbs of coconut sugar over top, spread pear slices evenly over top.
Carefully pour the batter over top of the pear slices and smooth it all out.
Bake for 50 min. until a toothpick comes out clean.
Makes about 10 slices
For the chocolate sauce
Combine all ingredients and leave at room temperature to thicken. Stir well before pouring over your finished banana bread.
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.
