healthy eating – CLARE HOPKINS

My Irresistible Homemade Hummus

October 18, 2019May 1, 2020Posted in FOOD, HEALTHTagged chickpea, chickpea cookie dough, cooking, dessert, fitness, HEALTH, healthy eating, healthy recipe, homemade, Pamela Reif, savoury, weight loss, zest4 Comments

Lately, I’ve been on the Hummus wagon.

I fell off for a while whilst I was struggling with IBS. To manage it my doctor had me on a low FODMAP diet where legumes are not allowed.

Now that I’m able to eat them again I’ve been using beans and lentils wherever I can. If you love chickpeas too you have to try Pamela Reif’s inventive cookie dough recipe – chickpeas are involved…

If you’re not adventurous enough to try chickpea based desserts, try a making a savoury hummus at home.

I find homemade hummus much more flavourful than the store bought kind, and it’s a brilliant way to get plant-based protein, anti-inflammatory nutrients, and healthy fats in.

As I’m also (weirdly) addicted to green olives, I’ve added them to the recipe as well – feel free to exclude them if you’re not as keen.

Blend the following until smooth, and try it yourself:

400g canned chickpeas (washed & drained)
Healthy dose of lemon, herb and garlic seasoning (I find the Masterfood’s blend the perfect amount of zest and flavour, but you can always use an actual squeeze of lemon, mixed herbs, and a clove of garlic).
Lots of Paprika
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp water
10 green olives, pitted and stuffed with pimento

Have you made your own hummus before?

Falling in Love with Poke Bowls

August 20, 2018April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged book, bowl, clean eating, fitness, hawaii, healthy, healthy eating, love, nutrition, poke, RecipesLeave a comment

For those who don’t know, Poke pronounced “poh-kay”, is a native Hawaiian dish of diced raw fish in some sort of marinade.

For most, raw fish probably doesn’t seem appetising, but when whipped up in a salad-style bowl with an assortment of other flavours it’s to die for. Raw fish is also beneficial for heart health, weight loss, and contains vitamin A and D (see more here).

I got onto the poke bowl trend after discovering a restaurant (Greenhouse Asian Salads), which does a brilliant Poke bowl with tuna, black rice, soybeans, wasabi peas, and veggies.

I must have been going on about how much I loved Poke because a friend bought me a poke recipe book (probably to stop me from dragging her all over the place to try different poke bowls).

To make them yourself, you need a protein, base, salad, marinade, and some toppings for extra flavour and crunch. Here are my favourite combinations:

Protein
1. Diced Raw Tuna in Mayo
2. Diced Raw Salmon in Soy Sauce
Base
1. Black Rice
2. Quinoa
Salad
1. Shaved Carrots
2. Green Papaya
3. Roast Corn
4. Edamame Beans
Dressing
1. Balsamic Glaze
2. Roasted Sesame Dressing
3. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4. Sesame Oil
Toppings
1. Wasabi Peas
2. Seaweed Salad
3. Dried Seaweed (Nori)
4. Sesame Seeds

Each time I make a poke bowl I mix it up with a variation of the above! Let me know if you try it.

p.s. If you live in Sydney and want to have Poke in a restaurant, try Poke, Nude Fish, Fishbowl (Japanese twist) or Pokéd.

New Brunch Spots, High Tea, and Health Shots

December 11, 2017April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, CHRISTMAS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged bellagio cafe, blogger, breakfast, brookvale, brunch, Chatswood, CHRISTMAS, Christmas spirit, Colourpot, delicious, diary, family, flowerchild, FOOD, friends, happy, HEALTH, health shots, healthy eating, immune, journal, laneway, life update, manly, momo bar, others, personal, photography, restaurants, summer, Sydney, the north spoon, the rocks, the tea cosy, thoughts, warm, wild sage, writing4 Comments

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.

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset — 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!

Banana and Almond Muffins? Yes pleaaassee

September 12, 2017April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged almond, baking, banana, blogging, colour pot, Colourpot, craving, dessert, filling, FOOD, fun, HEALTH, healthy, healthy eating, healthy recipes, healthy snack, muffin, recipe, snack, treat, vegan, weight loss, wordpress1 Comment

You know when you have that sudden craving to bake? Well, I experienced this at about 11pm last night and stayed up until midnight baking & feasting away.

I usually head straight for the cacao and dates to make something super chocolatey, fudgy and sweet, but for some reason today my eye caught the two overripe bananas that were sitting on the kitchen ledge.

So, I preheated the oven to 180˚C and gathered together what I could find in the pantry for my banana and almond muffins. These can be vegan and are gluten free.

I used almond meal instead of ordinary flour, as it is high in protein and vitamin E – providing essential nutrients whilst filling you up (read more here). The bananas are the perfect natural sweetener, and they provide a sweet note as well as potassium and fibre.

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
Sprinkle of salt

Wet Ingredients:

2 eggs (use an egg replacer for the vegan option)
2 bananas
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp almond milk (or any milk of your choosing)

I popped the dry ingredients into a blender, whisked them together (make sure the oats are ground into a fine powder) and poured them into a bowl. Then I blended the wet ingredients to form a runny mixture, which I combined in the bowl with the dry ingredients.

I placed about 2 heaped spoonfuls of mixture into 8 lined cupcake tins. All they needed was 30 minutes in the oven (check with a skewer – no mixture residue should be on it when you poke it through the middle of a muffin), and they were done. Voila!

Nutritional Breakdown (per serve):

137 calories/572 kilojoules
5.0g Protein
8.5g Fat (0.8g Saturated)
9.0g Carbs
43mg Sodium

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.

Fairytale Breakfast Destination

March 5, 2017April 17, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOODTagged alexandria, bread & circus, breakfast, breakfast spot, brunch, cafe, clean eating, healthy cafe, healthy eating, lunch, sydney cafes, sydney city, treat, vegan cafe, vegetarian, wholefoods, wholefoods cafe2 Comments

Bread & Circus Wholefoods Canteen combines fairytale and farmers market in Alexandria’s very own Foodie Warehouse. The cafe was just a 15 minute stroll from Erskineville station.

Photo courtesy of http://breadandcircus.com.au/

This cafe gives a new meaning to flexitarian, with great brekkie and lunch options that let you unleash your inner vegetarian (with some cheats).

For breakfast, you can choose to indulge in biodynamic eggs flavoured with parmesan, herbs and truffle oil, or treat yourself to their must-have cardamom spiced banana bread. Each meal is around $20, but if you don’t want to break the budget you can get fluffy biodynamic essene bread with avo for $10.

For lunch you can discover roasted beetroot topped with warm goats cheese or keep an eye out for their ‘sandwich boxes’ with preservative free ham or grass-fed sustainable beef. The menu changes daily, so you’ll want to go back again (and again) for more.

Get your coffee fix with their blends that use beans from Columbia and Guatemala. Tea junkies are spoilt with an array of black and herbal delights, my favourite was the Himalayan Earl Grey.

The canteen has a dreamlike feel with its light wood benches and pastel pink walls, which are bountifully decorated with fresh fruits and veggies.

I went with a close friend, and it was the perfect cafe for brunch to catch up, so definitely make a date and enjoy this hidden gem.