Raw Coco Bites

In my opinion, one of the best and easiest ways to stay healthy is to have healthy snacks on hand all the time, so that sudden sugar cravings can't catch you off guard, resulting in you raiding your cupboard for those old sweets left over from Christmas (come on we've all been there). 

So, I wanted to make something that I could put in a little tuppawear and take around with me (to work , on journeys etc) or that I could keep in the fridge for my afternoon sweetness fix. If you have a crazy sweet tooth like I do, but still want to eat nourishing, natural wholefoods, these coco bites are for you! They’re also so so quick and easy to make, with very few ingredients, so you can whip them up on a Sunday afternoon and your sweet snack for the week is sorted.

They also look really cute so are great to serve with cups of tea when friends pop over, or put in sweet little packages and give as gifts. 

Ingredients:

12 medjool dates
125g almonds
3 tbsps coco powder/raw cacao powder
Coconut sugar to roll the bites in (optional)

Method:

Soak the dates for half an hour to an hour so that they’re really soft for blending.
Remove the stones (do not forget to do this I’ve made this mistake before and it was a terrible experience).
Blend the almonds, but not so much that they form a smooth flour, you want to have them a sort of gravel-like consistency.
Add the dates to the blended almonds and blend until they form a sticky paste.
Add the coco/cacao powder to the mixture. Obviously, the more cacao you add the more chocolately they will be so feel free to add more! Nothing can ever be too chocolatey I feel..
Roll the mixture into bite-sized balls and then roll them in the coconut sugar if you like, but this is completely optional. I made half with and half without and both tasted great. I’d say if you have less of a sweet tooth, go without.

Let them set in the freezer for about half an hour and then enjoy your natural little sugar kick!

Super Datey Flapjacks

I’ve always had a major love for flapjacks. They’re just so simple but so sweet and yummy too (I have a serious sweet tooth..). They’re also so so easy to make and great for popping in your packed lunch or as an afternoon treat with your cup of tea.

These beauties that I whipped up last weekend are free from refined sugar and taste amazing. They’re packed with oats to give you a natural energy burst and the dates make them so sweet and sticky. Although dates are a completely natural and unprocessed sugar source, they are high in fructose so I wouldn’t recommend eating these everyday. That being said, a treat now and again won’t kill you and if you’re going to have sugar, it’s best to keep it as natural as possible, so in my opinion these datey flapjacks are the perfect treat!

Ingredients:
 

150g medjool dates (remember to remove the stones!)

2 tbsps coconut oil,

3 tbsps date or pure maple syrup,

1 tbsp almond butter, 150 g rolled oats. Feel free to add any extra dried fruit/seeds you want, I just kept mine simple.

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C. Line a baking tin with baking paper or spread on some coconut oil.

Put the dates in a food processor and blend until they stick together to form a sort of paste.

Heat the coconut oil, almond butter, syrup and blended dates together in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the coconut oil and almond butter have melted and the blended dates have mixed in well with the syrup.

Add the oats and any dried fruit/seeds you're using to the pan and stir them in so that everything is mixed in well with the liquid.

Spoon the mixture into the baking tin and spread evenly.

Bake for 15 minutes. Take them out of the oven and slice into squares.

Then leave them to cool for half an hour or so, so that they Harden into crunchy but sticky bites of datey heaven. If they're still a bit soft when they've cooled down, put them in the fridge for another half an hour to harden up.
 

 

Happy Easter Weekend and happy baking!!!

Banana Honey Nut Granola



I absolutely adore granola - it's genuinely what gets me out of bed most mornings. So I've come up with another little granola recipe working in some of my favourite ingredients; almond butter, banana, and honey. 

I love making my own granola because often shop bought varieties are packed with unnecessary sugar - and I know this granola still has sugar in it, but it is much more natural (in the form of the banana and organic honey) which I always think is better than any processed rubbish. 

Ingredients:

400g oats

1 large banana

2 tbsps almond butter

2 tbsps honey

3 tbsps melted coconut oil

100g nuts (I used a mix of walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 125˚C.

2. Mash the banana in a small bowl.

3. Add the oats and nuts into a large mixing bowl, and then add the almond butter, honey, mashed banana, and coconut oil and mix it well so that no oats are left at the bottom of the bowl.

4. Line a baking tray with some more coconut oil and spread the mixture evenly.

5. Bake for 30 minutes, but after the first 15 minutes turn it around with a spoon so that it doesn't turn into a granola bar.

6. Leave to cool and set so it becomes crunchy.

My favourite thing at the moment is having it with banana 'ice cream' (frozen bananas blended with almond milk and raw cacao powder).

Yummyyyy!

Boulevard des Batignolles Organic Market

This morning I made a little trip to a cute little organic market on Boulevard des Batignolles, which is just around the corner from where I'm now living. I love markets - I don't know why, they just make me feel happy, especially when the produce is local and organic, it just feels so much more natural and authentic than supermarket shopping. Also, you can often find cheap deals on fruit and veggies which is always a plus!

The Boulevard des Batignolles organic market sells all kinds of colourful, fresh and organic fruits and veggies - a lot of which I haven't been able to find in any French supermarkets, such as kale (one of my fave smoothie ingredients). So I really stocked up for the week ahead! (Obviously not all of the produce at this market is locally sourced - I don't think many pineapples grow in France...).

Tomorrow is going to be my cooking day when I prepare all my food for my healthy lunches that I can grab and take to work. I'm going to be roasting up some of the veggies, and making big batches of quinoa and hummus so I can always have nourishing and delicious food readily available to take with me when I'm in a rush in the morning.

Vegalia Juice

Vegalia Juice was the first juice bar I found on arriving in Paris - and it still remains my favourite. You'll find it in the busy area of Oberkampf (the 11th arrondissement) at 106 rue Amelot. The juices are all cold pressed, 100% organic and oh so delicious. There's a great variety of combos to choose from, each with their own superfood 'booster' added to it to make it extra super-duper healthy! 

My favourites are the 'Kale', which is kale (surprisingly), cucumber, pineapple, apple and spirulina, and the 'Pink', which is beetroot, carrot, apple, and ginger with the added 'boosters' acerola and urucum. Urucum is an Amazonian plant rich in beta carotene, and acerola, found in the same part of the world, is full of minerals, vitamins and flavonoids, promoting general health and vitality.

So many flavours... So many snacks!

This amazing little juice bar from Australia also delivers juices within Paris for juice cleanses and takes orders online. The shop also sells lots of healthy goodies such as trail mix, snack bars and raw chocolate. Everything is raw, organic and vegan - a real rarity in Paris.

You can get them sippy-cup style or in more boring bottles..

Me looking grrreat.. I was in desperate need of a juicy pick me up!

This is the place to go for your juices à Paris!

Paris Running Spots: Parc Monceau

Moving from the East to the West of Paris has been really fun as it’s given me the chance to explore a completely different area of Paris. The area I’m living in now is slightly more peaceful than the Marais, which is a really welcome change – although I did love the Marais for all its amazing vintage shops and back streets full of hidden restaurants and bars.

As I’ve said before, one of the best ways to explore a new area is to run around it! So this is my first favourite running spot in the 8^th arrondissement.



Such pretty gates!

Parc Monceau is a smallish park off Boulevard de Courcelles – it covers roughly 20 acres, so it doesn’t take very long to run around the outside of it. It’s a great place to go if you want a short, easy run, but you can obviously also turn it into a long one by doing laps! There is a long, flat stretch down the middle of it which could be good for sprint practice.



 

 

 

 
 

Running past this pretty flower shop on the way to the park always puts me in a happy mood!

Watch it: Forks Over Knives documentary

Anyone who knows me well will know that I LOVE watching programmes about food – this includes pretty much anything and everything (I’m talking about stuff like Come Dine With Me and Dinner Date here). On a more educational/serious note though, I really recommend watching the documentary Forks Over Knives.

I found it so interesting from start to finish. It’s basic aim is to show that a plant-based diet has been scientifically proved to be disease fighting (including cancers and heart disease) and just generally great for overall health. What I liked most about it was that it debunks many of the myths we are told by the food industry about the necessity of meat and dairy products (particularly milk) for our health, giving clear and reasonable evidence against these myths without overcomplicating the information.

Personally I am a vegetarian, a choice I made when I was very young, which I stick to mainly because it’s what works best for my body. I limit my dairy intake for the same reason. However, I do believe in balance, and I do believe in personal choice. I don’t judge people for eating meat (as long as it’s grass-fed/organic/from a trustworthy source) but I do think it’s important to open ourselves up to different ways of living and eating by exposing ourselves to information such as that in this documentary, in order to make a more informed decision about what we put into our bodies and why.  

 

Forks Over Knives is on Netflix and really worth the Watch!