treat – CLARE HOPKINS

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

April 3, 2019April 25, 2020Posted in CHRISTMAS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged choc chip, Clare Hopkins, cookies, dairy free, dessert, health treat, healthy, peanut butter, quick treat, treat, vegan6 Comments

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.

XMAS Healthy Salted Caramel Cookies

December 16, 2017April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, CHRISTMAS, FOODTagged Australia, baking, CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS, Christmas baking, Christmas spirit, climate, cookies, delicious, dessert, dessert recipe, desserts, holiday, hot, recipe, salted caramel, snack, treat, yum2 Comments

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:

Chocolate Chips (I love Doorstep Organics Dark Chocolate Drops Chips)
3/4 Cup Coconut Oil
3/4 Cup Maple Syrup
1.5 cups coconut sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup caramel sauce (I use Natvia No Sugar Caramel Sauce)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
Sprinkle of salt
Cinnamon
Nutmeg

The Method:

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!

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

Cheesy Eggplant Lasagne for Fathers Day

September 8, 2017April 22, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOODTagged apple crumble, blog, blogger, blogging, connoisseur, creme brulee, dad, delicious, dessert, dinner, eggplant lasagna, family, fathers day, FOOD, fun, guides, happy, HEALTH, home cooked, ice cream, lasagna, lindt, lunch, meal, milk chocolate, photography, Recipes, salad, treat, white chocolate, wordpress, writing4 Comments

When I realised Father’s Day was approaching, I had the annual freak out… What am I going to buy Dad? Is there anything he’s mentioned he wants?

The reality is that Dad never says what he wants and says he’d be happy with a card. Since I’m not going to just wake up, toss him a card and consider my job done, I decided this year I’d cook a big lunch.

I kept it super simple. Dad’s favourites are the plainer dishes; lasagne, sausages, chops, lamb shanks, vanilla ice cream, milk chocolate…

So, I decided to do lasagne, with a twist.

Cheesy Eggplant Lasagne. Think gooey cheese, creamy chickpeas and aromatic tomato arranged together to create a healthier twist on Italian comfort food.

The eggplant soaks up all the delicious creamy tomato sauces and becomes a soft mess that tastes incredible with the chickpea/almond meal base and cheese oozing throughout.

For dessert, we enjoyed my favourite Healthy Apple Crumble recipe with Connoisseur white chocolate/raspberry ice cream (you could go for Halo Top for a lower calorie alternative, Connoisseur is Dad’s favourite).

I also sourced a block of Lindt’s creme brulee milk chocolate – a Lindt flavour I haven’t seen before. I hope they keep stocking the shelves with it because it was the perfect mix of crispy caramel and creamy milk chocolate.

Even though we kept it simple, it was nice to enjoy a home cooked meal. What did you do for Father’s Day?

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.

Christmassy Gingerbread Truffles

December 5, 2016April 15, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, CHRISTMAS, FOODTagged chocolate, cream cheese, easy, festive, fun, gingerbread, quick, recipe, treat, trufflesLeave a comment

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.

Merry Christmas!