Category: CHRISTMAS

4 ingredient Vegan Choc-Peanut Cookies… that actually taste good

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Hello and happy hump day!

Today I thought I’d share with you my favourite 4-ingredient cookie recipe. It’s perfect for whipping up on a Sunday night, so you have healthy treats to enjoy throughout the week.

Now that we’re getting cooler weather in Sydney (and by cold I mean the weather has changed to 22C/71F, but that’s freezing for Sydney Siders), it’s lovely to have some healthy comfort food. Comfort food is so important for balance, but I love options that make me feel good after as well.

This recipe uses substitutes sugar for bananas, to get a sweet tang and also a fudgy texture. The peanut butter gives that nutty, salty crunch which makes them so delectable.

It’s important to use natural peanut butter (just peanuts with a little bit of salt) to reap all the fantastic benefits that peanut butter brings – high protein, fibre, healthy fats and magnesium for bone and muscle fortification.

The Four Ingredients: 2 ripe bananas, 1/4 cup creamy organic crunchy peanut butter, 1 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup roughly chopped organic dark chocolate.

Method:

Mix bananas, peanut butter, and oats in a bowl. Once a dough forms, stir through chocolate chunks (feel free to eat the mixture here… it’s almost better than the cookies themselves).

Roll mixture into small balls on a lined baking tray to bake. Bake for 10 minutes at 200C/390F.

Nutrition per serving:

Serves 8
200 Calories
6g Protein
21g Carbs
5g Sugar
12g Fat

ENJOY!

What are you favourite, simple treat recipes? Comment below! I’d love to know.

Delicious Healthy Hot Chocolate Recipe

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Christmas is coming… and although its the time to indulge in all your favourite treats, I love to have some healthy dessert alternatives that I can enjoy without experiencing the mood swings and skin breakouts that excess sugar gives me. See the science behind this here.

When curating the ingredients for my healthy hot chocolate, my goal was to get that rich chocolate flavour whilst avoiding added sugar. The drink is around 50 calories per serving.

The recipe requires pure cacao powder, which is rich in polyphenols providing some key health benefits: reducing inflammation, lowering blood pressure, and lowering blood sugar levels.

You will need: 

Method:

  1. Add cacao, milk, vanilla essence, cinnamon, nutmeg and maple syrup to a pot and bring to a simmer 
  2. Pinch the mint leaves until limp and throw into the pot
  3. Stir all ingredients until mixture is warm and powders are well combined (2-3 minutes) 
  4. Take mint leaves out of the top of the drink and discard (or leave in for something extra on top
  5. Garnish with chopped healthy marshmallows

Let me know if you try it out! Enjoy! 

xx

XMAS Healthy Salted Caramel Cookies

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Okay so yes this is your usual Salted Caramel cookie recipe, however, for a sprinkle of Christmassy festivity I added cinnamon, nutmeg and rich dark chocolate to the dough.

Read on if you’re interested in my simple, yet divinely tasty XMAS Caramel cookies. Or better; create them yourself in 20 minutes.

Gather the following:

The Method:

  1. Mix all the ingredients (except chocolate chips) together, until you form a cookie dough. You can add almond milk gradually if the mixture is too flour-y.

2. Use a rolling pin to knead the dough out on top of an acrylic/plastic/stone surface.

3. Here’s where it got a little more complicated. I’m currently experiencing an Australian summer, so naturally the sun was beating down at 30˚C, which made all my cookie dough melt and stick to my hands. So, I wrapped it in cling wrap and popped it in the freezer for 5 mins to make it think it was in Antarctica.

4. Cut little shapes out with the cookie cutter.

5. As the cookie cutter will make the raw cookies a lot thinner and smaller than Betty Crocker recommends for cookie sizing, you only have to place them in the oven for 8 minutes at 180˚C (350˚F), so they don’t burn.

The perfect Christmas treat. Enjoy!

xx

New Brunch Spots, High Tea, and Health Shots

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Thankfully its been warm, sunny weather in Sydney, and as we FINALLY turn into Summer and Uni has finished, I’ve been trying to catch up with all my friends whenever I can around work.

I’ve been dotting around Sydney trying some good (and not so good) places. There are a couple I would highly recommend.

Flowerchild is a sweet little cafe in both Brookvale and Chatswood and I’ve managed to go to both in the past fortnight. It’s has dainty, flower embellished decor and serving up platters that look more like works of art than meals.

I’ve also been having scone cravings lately. I’ve tried baking some myself, but my favourites are from The Tea Cosy in the Rocks. We indulged in cheesy scones with smoked salmon, sour cream and chives, alongside some classic scones with strawberry jam, thick cream and Nanna’s Apple Pie Tea. This was a fruity, warming black tea that reminded me of Christmas – you can buy it in their shop!

I also tried out Momo Bar in Manly, who brought the Poké trend to Sydney. I had the Tiki Bowl: edamame, cabbage, seaweed, ginger, onion, carrot and fried shallots, with roasted sesame sauce. Delicious!

I have also had incredible brunches (i.e. A LOT of smashed avo on toast) at Laneway, The North Spoon, Wild Sage and The Bellagio Cafe.

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Momo Bar Manly – Tiki Bowl

Another thing I’ve caught onto lately is the health shot trend. These supposedly prevent you from low immune, and at first I was a little sceptical.

However, after looking into the argument for them, it makes a lot of sense – it’s a little shot packed with all the good-immune-boosting stuff.

I’ve been making my own health shots to accompany morning tea. They are bitter and slightly off-putting so you will need a palette cleansing chaser. I blend kale, mixed leafy greens, water, turmeric, and chia seeds.

If you’re struggling with low immune, or just want to boost your daily nutrients, it’s something I would try!

xx

Christmas: the Ultimate Treat Day

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I don’t believe in ‘cheat days’ but rather ‘treat days’.

Sounds like a small difference to most, however, in order to foster a healthy relationship with food it has been important for me to redefine what eating junk food means. This meant a slight change in perspective: rather than unhealthy meals being ‘bad’ and a ‘cheat’, I see them as a treat that provides balance amongst my healthier food choices.

Of course, Christmas is all about treats and enjoying lots of wonderful flavours.

I started off the day with a candy cane cookie (Vegan Shortbread recipe, shaped in a candy cane – my friend made them for me) and a T2 Choc Chip Chai.

Then I busied myself making a Bread & Butter Pudding. And of course, I ate half the batter as I was making it. I used Taste’s recipe for it. Despite my affinity for anything with chocolate, B&B Pudding is still my favourite dessert.

To make the B&B pudding a little more nutritious, I added two eggs (six eggs total), took out the pure cream, and substituted the cows milk for almond milk. If you want a dairy free recipe you could try coconut cream, coconut milk and Nuttelex as your cream, milk and butter substitutes.

I find it’s fun to ‘healthy-fy’ recipes where I can – it was still just as delicious, and reduced the richness of the pudding so I could enjoy other things!

Just before lunch, we had assorted cheeses (Camembert, Brie, Cheddar) with biscuits, salami slices, bread sticks, chopped veggies with avocado dip and tomato relish. These were savoured with mulled wine and champagne.

For the main meal, there was an array of dishes but I chose smoked ham, roast chicken and prawns, with a side of a quinoa, kale and roast beetroot salad that I tossed together.

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What’s important with Christmas is your mindset. Don’t go crazy all day on Dec 25 and then try to restrict calories for the rest of the week – you’ll just end up having a crap holiday. Rather, listen to your body and eat until you are full, enjoy the treats you wouldn’t normally enjoy, and eat intuitively for the days after. Your body will naturally crave fewer calories after a full day of Christmas eating!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a lovely day, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.

xx

Healthy Mulled Wine? Recipe

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Despite being an alcoholic drink, mulled wine touts a couple of fantastic health benefits, which can be boosted if you make a couple of clever substitutions.

It’s important to note that mulled wine is never going to be as ‘clean’ as kale or broccoli, but don’t discount the powerful properties this delicious Christmas drink has.

Citrus Fruits: Citrus fruits are a powerful source of vitamin C, which is an immunity booster. Don’t waste the orange in this recipe – make sure to enjoy it after you’ve taken the rind!

The Wine: Red wine itself has several health benefits, and is recommended to be consumed to reduce ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol levels and provide antioxidants to the body.

Nutmeg: Nutmeg improves the cardiovascular system, which boosts heart function.

Cinnamon: Cinnamon is a wonderful anti-inflammatory spice, and it has also been shown to reduce sugar cravings.

You will need:

  • 1 bottle of red table wine
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 5 whole cloves
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 grated nutmeg
  • Rind of 1 orange
  • 1 chunk of ginger

Method:

Bring water, raisins, cloves, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, orange rind and ginger to the boil in a saucepan. Then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the red wine and simmer for another 10 minutes. Strain the mulled wine and serve immediately. I like to put little orange peel curls or cinnamon sticks in each glass for decoration and extra flavour.

Merry Christmas Eve!

xx

Christmassy Gingerbread Truffles

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These are one of the easiest, tastiest and most MOREISH Christmas treats to make.

I love Christmas because its an excuse to incorporate ginger into nearly every dessert I have. Whilst gingerbread isn’t the healthiest way to incorporate ginger, it’s the time of year to indulge and enjoy things you might not usually have.

Having said that, ginger does have many wonderful benefits. As it is an anti-inflammatory it reduces cell damage and it also aids digestion by settling the stomach.

For my truffles, I used one packet of gingersnaps, half a tub of cream cheese (Sheese for dairy-free option), chocolate sprinkles, cinnamon, 1 tbsp icing sugar and cream (or coconut cream).

After blending the gingersnaps into a fine powder using my NutriBullet, I added a dollop of cream cheese and kneaded the mixture with my fingers to create a cookie dough texture.

Then, I used my hands to create 8 round little truffle balls and laid them out on a plate. Placing them in the fridge for 15 minutes, I waited for them to cool whilst whisking up a spoon of cream cheese, 3 tbsp cream and 1 tbsp icing sugar into an icing paste. After taking them out the fridge I spread the icing on top and garnished the truffles with the chocolate sprinkles and cinnamon.

This recipe is so easy to whip up quickly for friends and family. It has really thrown me into the Christmas spirit. If you are tracking macros – each serving has 190 calories, and 7.5g of sugar.

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Merry Christmas!

xx

Calories don’t Count on Christmas! Mince Pies and Mulled Wine for Breakfast.

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Merry Christmas!

After stuffing myself silly with turkey, ham, pumpkin, potato, feta salad, veggies, custard, mince pies and truffles, on Christmas Eve, I woke up this morning to a tree full of presents and a slightly-less eager family who just wanted to sleep in. 

Luckily I managed to get them out of bed by 9 am – motivating them mainly with warm, fruit-mince tarts that I freshly baked. 

Earlier in the morning I was inspired by a recipe in my Mum’s old Donna Hay cookbook. 

First I prepared the filling, by combining the following in a bowl and set it aside in the fridge: 

  • 1 cup Granny Smith Apples, finely chopped
  • Pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon
  • Dash of Brandy
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
  • 1/2 cup currants
  • 3 tsp lemon rind
  • 50g butter melted
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar 
  • 1/2 cup orange juice

Whilst waiting for that to chill, I used cookie cutters to cut little circles in shortcrust pastry and place them into greased cupcake baking trays. Then I prepared my star toppings using a smaller star cookie cutter. 

After the hour was up I took the filling out the fridge and distributed it into the moulds. I placed the little star cutouts on top of each one and brushed them all with melted butter. 

Then, I popped them into the oven (160C/320F) for 25-30 minutes. 

Everyone enjoyed fruit mince pies, gourmet chocolate truffles (from Belle Fleur Fine Chocolates – a boutique chocolate shop in Sydney’s Inner West), and mulled wine whilst opening presents.

I got very spoilt this Christmas, and got a Mimco Supernatural Medium Pouch, some cute Kikki K stationary and the Antler Aire Large Suitcase. 

Clearly I was spoilt by family and friends – hope you had a wonderful Christmas and got everything you wished for!

xx