healthy baking – CLARE HOPKINS

Making Healthy Brownies (80 Cal Each)

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020Posted in HEALTHTagged brownies, dessert, healthy, healthy baking, healthy blogging, healthydish, healthyeating, healthyfoodielifestyle, Low calorie5 Comments

We’ve just come out of Easter and I’m sure everyone has spent the weekend enjoying lots of chocolate and other yummy, indulgent dishes. Whenever I’m trying to get back on track, I always bake some healthy desserts or I risk going to healthy and then just binging on all the leftover Easter chocolate…

Healthy dessert recipes mean that you can enjoy sweet treats whilst avoiding the sugar high that usually accompanies them. Whilst a sugar high (i.e. insulin spike caused by an overload of glucose) might sound fairly harmless in the short run, excessive sugar intake can have negative impacts in the long term. See here for information about how excess sugar affects your teeth, joints, skin etc.

To avoid these complications, I try to reduce my sugar intake whilst still enjoying great desserts. It all about everything in moderation!

This recipe has substitutes from the usual brownie recipe that we all know and love, that not only make it lower in calories, but also provide some wonderful health benefits with the same delicious taste.

Sweeteners

Bananas – These delicious fruits provide a wonderful texture to the brownies whilst also giving a subtle fruity undertone. Banana’s are rich in vitamin B6 which helps your body metabolise carbohydrates and fats and remove unwanted chemicals from your body. Banana’s also provide a healthy source of Manganese which helps your body produce collagen to boost your skin.

Sugar Free Maple Syrup and Chocolate – Sugar free alternatives are great ways to enjoy sweet, sugar-like flavour whilst avoiding cane sugar. It is important to note that some no-calorie sweeteners may upset your stomach. If this is the case opt for a natural sweetener like Stevia.

Healthy Fats

Coconut Milk – Coconut milk is rich in healthy fats and antioxidants, which help to protect you from harmful radicals that are produced when your body breaks down food.

Flours

Oat Flour – Oat flour is a naturally gluten free, whole grain flour, which provides an excellent source of fibre to help your digestion whilst keeping you satiated. If you enjoy the taste and texture, oats are a powerful substitute in creating a healthy recipe.

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
3/4 cup canned LITE coconut milk
1/2 cup rolled oats or Oat Flour
1/3 cup cacao powder
3 tbsp sugar free maple syrup (or real maple syrup if you prefer that).
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
90g Chocolate – I like to use Well Naturally Sugar Free Chocolate
Optional: 5 drops of MyProtein Chocolate FlavDrops

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 C
Put rolled oats into blender and blend. Then, add bananas, coconut milk, cacao powder, syrup, vanilla extract, and baking powder into blender and BLEND.
Pour mixture into a bowl and stir in salt and chopped up chocolate. Add FlavDrops if you desire a richer chocolatey taste (the sweetness of this batter will subdue when it bakes, so aim for a mixture that is slightly sweeter than you desire).
Bake for 15 minutes or until fudgy brownie comes out on skewer inserted.
Allow to cool a little bit and then cut into 16 slices!

ENJOY! Let me know how the recipe goes! X

Healthy Almond-Cacao Protein Balls

June 11, 2017April 17, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged chocolate, delicious, energy balls, focus, FOOD, friends, fun, guides, happy, HEALTH, healthy baking, healthy chocolate, healthy dessert, healthy recipe, journal, nutrition, photography, protein balls, recipe, snacks, wordpress9 Comments

Protein balls are a fantastic, filling, healthy snack. Just try not to eat all of them on one go (they are very moreish).

I use coconut oil because it much more filling compared to lots of other cooking oils, and also helps stick them together. Alternatively you could mix up the flavours and use peanut butter instead.

Each ball has about 205 calories and is dense with healthy fats and protein to make it the perfect snack.

My recipe makes 5. You will need:

1/2 cup almonds
1/3 cup chia seeds
50g sultanas
2 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp coconut oil

Method:

Put all dry ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth
Put peanut butter and coconut oil in the microwave for 1 minute
Pour peanut butter/coconut oil mixture into dry ingredients and mix with spoon.
Using your hands form the mixture into 5 little protein balls
Place in fridge for an hour
Enjoy!

Let me know if you try the recipe out!

5 Go-to Healthy Snacks

May 21, 2017April 17, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged affordable, baking, clean eating, cookies, cooking, diet, FOOD, fruit/nuts, go-to snacks, healthy, healthy baking, healthy cookies, healthy eating, hummous, pantry, popcorn, Recipes, snacks, sugarless baking, sugarless cookies3 Comments

As mentioned in my previous posts, I am a huge snacker.

To stop me from standing in the pantry and eating everything in sight, I have five healthy snacks that I go for when hunger strikes.

These are:

Carrot sticks & Hummous – carrots are my favourite veggie because of their sweetness. I buy Pilpel Hummus to go with them, as it has so much flavour and is basically just chickpeas.
Dried fruit/nut mix – I go for a mix of pecans, pepitas, dried apricots, sultanas and walnuts. The fruits satisfy any sweet cravings and the nuts fill you up.
Carman’s Nut Bar – Carman’s does such a great range of healthy and filling muesli bars. If your local supermarket stocks them I would recommend checking them out. They are the perfect snack, and funnily enough, I got up at 2am the other night because my stomach was rumbling, and the Carmen’s nut bar was the perfect fix to send me back to sleep.
Popcorn – try to avoid popcorns that are doused in butter, just plain corn kernels will do the trick.
Sugarless banana & oatmeal cookies (see recipe below)

Sugarless Banana/Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

I have been making batches of these for longer than I can remember because they are the perfect moreish snack, especially when I’m on the go.

You will need:

1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Sprinkle of salt
1/4 cup olive oil (be ready to add more in case your mixture is too dry)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sultanas
2 soft bananas
1/3 cup pepitas
2 tbsp maple syrup
Handful of pecans (to decorate)
Feel free to add chocolate chunks if that’s your thing – I LOVE Pico Super Dark chocolate to bake with.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Mix the oats, flour, cinnamon, salt, sultanas, bananas and pepitas together in a large bowl. Then, add the olive oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup and stir to combine.

Add extra olive oil until the mixture is cookie dough consistency. Roll into small balls and whack in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes (or until golden brown).

I hope you enjoy these great snacks.