Avo Brownies

One thing I’ve learnt since opting for a plant based diet is there is almost always a vegan recipe for life’s little treats, most recently discovered is vegan brownies. With all the gooey goodness you would expect from a brownie and cruelty free, these are worth a try. I made them recently for a friend’s birthday (not vegan) and they went down a treat. This may not be as healthy as if you made it all from scratch (I’ve got some non-packet brownie recipes I will be trying soon) – but it’s super quick and super tasty. Note – when I say vegan, I mean that there are no highlighted animal products in the ingredients list.

These brownies take 5-10 minutes prep time and then 20 mins cooking time (depending how gooey you like them).

To make these brownies you need:

• 1 Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Brownie mix
• 1 large spoon of coconut oil
• 1-2 avocados (depending on size)

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Grease baking tin (I used vegan butter, but sure some coconut oil would work too)
• Empty the brownie mix into a large mixing bowl
• Melt the coconut oil so that it’s runny and stir into the brownie mix
• Mash the avocado and add to the brownie mix – stir well so there are no avocado lumps
• Put the mixture in the baking tin and cook for 20 minutes – check after 15!

While the brownies were cooking, I decided to make this an extra decadent dessert and dipped some strawberries in melted chocolate to add to the brownies once cooked. These are really easy to do, just melt some dark chocolate (check that it’s dairy free!) in a bowl over a saucepan of water (bain marie)- or microwave, dip, then let them cool in the fridge!

 

Deliciousness rating: 9/10

Vegan Cacao Cashew Cheesecake

2018 (I know we’re now in March!) has brought a new focus on diet, health and holistic wellbeing for me. I now have a much deeper connection and intention to life a vegan lifestyle. I am currently training to become a yoga teacher (so expect a lot more yoga posts!) but with that comes a shift in mindset to look after my body better, insides and out and a stronger cosmic connection to all beings and mother earth. Something that’s also really triggered this shift in mindset, was when I was really confronted with a ginormous cheese pancake. Talking honestly I have danced back and forth with fully committing to a vegan diet and granted myself ‘cheat’ days when I can have something with dairy or eggs. However on said cheat day, a huge pancake piled with mounds of cheese was placed in front of me. I felt such a strong emotional and physical response of disgust and upset when seeing this gross cheesy thing that it really connected me to my inner intention ‘I to not want to live an unsustainable life that contributes to animal cruelty, instead I want to be as compassionate as I can with my decision making and being’.

Anyway since this internal epiphany I am much more determine to try and test some great vegan recipes and share on this platform, such as this vegan cacao cashew cheesecake.

You will need

For the cheesecake filling:

• 300 grams cashews
• 3 table spoons cacao
• 4 table spoons Maple syrup / plant based syrup of your choice
• Plant based milk (I used almond)
• Sea Salt
• 5 dates
• Vegan dark chocolate

For the base:

• Half a pack of Biscoff biscuits
• 3 table spoons of vegan butter – or you can use coconut oil

 

What to do:

• Soak your cashews in a bowl of water while preparing the rest of the ingredients
• Mash up the Biscoff biscuits in a large mixing bowl – unfortunately I still don’t have a rolling pin so had to do this with a ladle (?!), I’m sure blitzing in a food processor would work great too
• Melt the vegan butter gentle in a saucepan and add to the biscuit crumb
• Pour the biscuit and butter mix into your cheesecake dish, be sure to pat the mix down to ensure a firm base
• Pop your biscuit base in the freezer while you prepare the cheesecake filling
• Drain your cashews and add them to a food processor  (I use a Nutribullet), add the dates, cacao, syrup, sprinkle of salt and a good glug of plant based milk
• Blend the ingredients until you have a thick, smooth chocolatey mix
• Pour your cheesecake filling over the biscuit base and smooth
• Pop in the freezer for a couple of hours to firm
• Once your cheesecake is set, add some vegan dark chocolate shavings and serve!

This is a super quick and easy cheesecake recipe that is sure to delight every cheesecake lover.

Serve with vegan ice-cream to be extra naughty!

Avo Ajvar Baguette

Vegan lunches can sometimes be a challenge – especially when on the go, the only places I’ve found so far that serve a vegan sandwich are Pret A Manger and more recently Marks & Spencer have brought in a small vegan range – both of which are pretty good. Pret’s Chana Chaat Flatbread is most definitely worth a try!

Sometimes a sandwich is the only thing that will cut it come lunchtime and having few options can be frustrating and expensive. This recipe is one of my favourite discoveries and I would eat it every day if I could! The thing which really makes this sandwich is ‘ajvar’ which is a Macedonian red pepper spread (also spelt ajver). Its great with hummus, olives and pitta, with salad or today’s recipe in a baguette with avocado. I’m not sure how easy ajvar is to find (or make), but in local Turkish shops/delis etc you can find it or similar.

 

What you will need:

• 1 x small brown baguette
• Lettuce leaves
• 1 x small avocado (or half a large)
• A few large dollops of ajvar (I used the slightly spicy one)

Assemble together and enjoy. I don’t use any vegan butter in this as the avocado itself is rich and creamy. This is seriously one of the best sandwiches I’ve made since opting for a vegan diet and ajvar is quickly becoming one of my staples. I think that exploring new and exiting flavours from different countries and trying different recipes is all part of the fun of changing your diet and keeps it exciting when that egg mayo sarnie is off the menu. Should you not be able to find ajvar to give it a go, Pret do a very similar avocado and red tapenade vegan sandwich which is also very tasty.

Deliciousness rating: 9/10

Peanut Packed Porridge

Every time I make this for breakfast in the office I always get a weird look and asked ‘You put peanut butter in your porridge??’ well yes! I do – and I can’t believe no one else does?! It’s just so delicious, if you haven’t tried it yet you’re missing out.

I first discovered this a few years ago, back then I would add some raisins and honey to the porridge and peanut butter (before my vegan days) – which went together really well. Now I guess any kind of plant-based syrup would work: maple, date, agave, rice – just look at Biona’s list of sweeteners if you need some inspiration. We really do need the bees to thrive if we want our planet to as well, so with that in mind honey is easy to give up when there’s so many other alternatives (preaching over!).

So to make this – just whip up some porridge as you normally would, then add a delicious dollop of peanut butter (keep it palm oil free!) and mix in. Just PB alone is tasty enough, or you can get creative and add some other treats. Peanut butter and banana is always a great combo, or maybe some cacao nibs, seeds or berries.

Deliciousness rating: 9.5/10 – now do you believe me it’s good?

Flowering Beauty

First tea up for review on the blog! I got this as a Christmas Secret Santa present (an obvious choice for someone who drinks 6 cups of tea a day) and decided to give it a go! It is from The Exotic Teapot and is one of their flowering tea samplers.

This was my first experience of a flowering tea and I was intrigued to see if the flavour would match it’s dazzling show. I can’t say I’m too keen on tea blends that contain berries or flowers (apart from chamomile) – however herbal teas go down a treat.

The main enjoyment of this tea is watching the flowers unravel – it’s stunning. It took a few minutes from pouring the water on, to the flowers to open up and then another 5 minutes or so for the full flavours to come through. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the taste and ready enjoyed the subtle flowery flavours. The aroma and flavour is very relaxing and soothing and would be great after a tough day – hello feminine energy! I will definitely be trying flowering tea again for sure – so keep posted!

Deliciousness rating: 7.5/10 – although beautiful to watch it’s still no cup of chai!

Pink Drink

This smoothie is sweet and creamy and really easy to make. Most super markets now do frozen bags of mixed berries, which can speed up making your morning smoothie – and means you can have a great variety of flavours. I recently bought essential Waitrose berries mix which contains blackberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries (giving you lots of vitamin C and antioxidants to start your day). All those berries really do turn this drink pink!

For this you will need:

• Half a frozen banana
• Handful of frozen berries 
• Half a pear
• Chia seeds
• Handful of blueberries
• Splash of cashew milk

Just blend it all together for a minute or two and enjoy!

Deliciousness rating: 9/10

Warming Spiced Porridge

This recipe brings some Caribbean warmth to your average bowl of porridge. Ginger, nutmeg and coconut make this a winter warmer which goes down a treat. Serve with fresh peach to bring some sweetness and to balance the creaminess and spice.

 

What you will need:

• Porridge oats
• Cashew milk
• 1 Peach
• Agave syrup
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground ginger
• Creamed coconut

Instructions:

• Put the porridge oats and cashew milk in a saucepan over a low heat stirring occasionally until it becomes a creamy consistency  (4 mins) – I like thick porridge so I only pour enough cashew milk to cover the oats by a little bit
• You can also use 1/2 water 1/2 cashew milk if you’re trying to be extra healthy
• Whilst stirring add in a spoon of creamed coconut
• Then add the spices, half a teaspoon of each
• Slice the peach
• Once the porridge is nice and thick, pour into a bowl, add the sliced peach and drizzle some agave syrup over – I recently tried date syrup, which would work well too

Deliciousness rating: 9/10 – think rice pudding on a Caribbean beach

 

 

Guac Attack

So sadly guacamole on go to isn’t an option for those of us opting for a vegan diet – as supermarket guac contains cream, sigh… (This may not apply to all shop bought, but Tesco and Sainsbury’s guacamole does). However, it’s really easy to make and tastes much better fresh.

To make this you need:

• 3 avocados
• 1 lime
• 1-2 tomatoes 
• 1/2 teaspoon of cajun pepper (optional)
• 1/2 onion (red onion is my preference)
• Salt & pepper
• Small bunch of coriander 

Instructions

• Roughly chop the tomatoes and onion and remove the avocados from their skins
• Add the onion and tomato to the blender and blend for a few seconds so they are finely chopped
• Add the other ingredients and blend for another few seconds until the mixture becomes creamy
• Serve

Deliciousness rating: 8.5/10 – anything with avocado’s got to be good!

Back in love with the Blender

I’m not entirely sure what this blog is going to end up being about, but it will most probably be heavily be based around healthy food – which apparently I spend 99% of the time talking about, also with a good mix of tea tasting, yoga and my venture into veganism.

So to start! I thought I’d start with sharing my latest smoothie which I recently posted on Instagram and has triggered the whole blog idea. Having had a blender in the corner of the kitchen gathering dust, I am now trying to get more use of it, making tasty (vegan) treats. So far I have tried hummus, cacao and almond energy balls and now I’m getting back into smoothies (having watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix, the healthy juice/smoothie thing has been playing on my mind).

Berrie Goodness

This is just a mix of things lying around in the fruit bowl, but ended up being pretty tasty. It’s sweet and creamy, with some kale thrown in for good measure.

To make one smoothie, you will need:

• Handful of frozen strawberries (buy from the market and then freeze for smoothies!)
• Half a banana 
• Handful of blueberries (for that Vit K and Vit C superfood goodness)
• Bunch of kale
• Teaspoon of peanut butter (make sure to use a brand which is palm oil free – Meridian and Whole Earth are good for this)
• Splash of cashew milk – I much prefer this to almond/soy milk as it has a much more creamy texture. Alpro now do this and is in most supermarkets so worth a try.

Then just blend it all together and voila!

Enjoy with peanut butter and toast for brekkie.

Deliciousness rating: 8/10