[Recipe] Spelt Flour Bread with Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds

So I love pumpkin seeds. I eat them every morning with my cereals, I love them in salads and I especially love them in bread. I'm not much of a bread baker, so if you're not an expert either, this recipe is for you.

Les ingrédients:

250 grams spelt flour

100 grams different seeds (I used a 50:50 ratio of pumpkin and sunflower seeds)

3 tbs honey

3 tbs unrefined sugar

150 mL warm water

17 grams fresh yeast

1 tsp salt

It was a lot bigger to begin with, but I already ate the middle part before the photo shoot. Sorry.
#speltbreadmorelikechocolatebread

First you need  to mix the water with yeast and feed it some sugar (yeasts just love it). I added the honey, then salt, then flour and lastly the seeds. 

Let it rise for 2 hours in a warm place. Then deflate the dough and put in in your chosen loaf pan. Let rise a little bit more, then put in the preheated (220°C) oven for half an hour.

 

Close-up.

Why spelt?

• It contains a lot of dietary fibre (10.7g / 100g - in comparison, whole wheat white flour contains 2.7g/100g).
• Rich source of iron.
• Rich source of magnesium and phosphorus.
• Rich source of vitamin B1, B3 and others.

To sum it up: it's good for you.

This bread can be eaten as normal bread, but you can also totally eat it just as it is, because the seeds and a bit of honey just give it this amazing flavour.

The only thing I regret is that I didn't double the amount of ingredients, cause it went all to quickly.
I dare you to try it!

Bon appetit.

[Recipe] Vegan Chocolate Topping/Spread!

Hello my dear readers. As I've promised in the previous blogpost, I did come up with a vegan version of a chocolate spread that is delicious as hell.

If you're anything like me, you always want (/desperately need) something sweet after a healthy lunch. Well desserts can be healthy as well! That is what I made today:

No, it's not Nutella. I actually think it's way better than Nutella. Don't get me wrong, I've always been a huge Nutella fan (hence this empty glass jar I used to store my spread), but since it totally ruins my skin for at least a week after I have had it and the ingredients are so not good for you, I simply don't buy it anymore. 

So, to satisfy my cravings, I came up with this spread, that you can use however you may like. You can put it on a slice of bread, you can use it to top a raw food cake (or the ordinary one for that matter), you can eat it with a spoon just like that (what I do most of the time), you can mix it with some fruits...

Today I chose the strawberries!

I put it all in a martini glass.

The ingredients:

1 avocado
10 dates
1 tsp coconut oil
100 mL almond milk
2 tsp coconut sugar
1 tsp 100% unsweatened cocoa

Of course I had to add some coconut chips to oppose my red-brown color coordination. And they taste good.

Give it a go and let me know what you think!

Bisous,
Eva

[Let's make some] Avocado Cocoa Ice Cream!

Well hello! Today's dessert isn't a 100% healthy alternative to the ice cream that you can buy in stores and it's also not vegan, cause I did put some cream in it. But it still is way healthier than the ordinary one. Why? Because the only sugar in it comes from dates and of course I haven't put any preservatives or food colorants (that practically every ice cream bought in stores is full of) in it.

As you might have already noticed, I love simple recipes. This one is no exception.

You will need:

1 avocado
16 dates
2 tsp 100% unsweetened cocoa powder
100 mL cream
2 tsp extra-virgin coconut cream

The ingredients.

This thingy is just such a treat. It makes every recipe 100% better and it reduces the amount of sugar (e.g. dates) that you have to put into your mixture.

Cut the avocado.

And mix mix mix.

Now this looks really attractive and appetizing, right? [sarcasm]

So after you've mixed all the ingredients, just put them in little containers (or all together, that works as well) and freeze for at least a couple of hours.

For today's dessert, I put one out of the containers, turned it upside down and topped it with some coconut flakes to make it somehwat more attractive.

Final presentation.

And that's it. Hope you try it out. But if you're more into vegan desserts, I will be making a no-cream alternative to this recipe soon, so stay tuned!

Bisous,
Eva

[Raw Food Desserts] Apricot Almond Coconut Balls

Even though I'm far from eating raw at all times, when it comes to desserts, I actually prefer the taste of dates, avocado, coconut butter etc. to the old eggs-flour-sugar mixture... That being said, I still mostly bake just ordinary desserts (see earlier posts for proof). Well, it's 2014 and I wanted to make a little present for some of my 'like-to-eat-healthy' girlfriends, so I decided to kickstart my raw food desserts experiment with this deliciousness you can see on the photo above. I present you the Apricot Almond Coconut Balls.

The recipe is really very simple and quick to make. All you need is:

1 cup of dried organic apricots (they really should be organic, cause their taste and appearance are completely different compared to dried apricots treated with sulfur dioxide)

3/4 cup of almonds

2 dates (yes, just the two of them)

juice from half a lemon

cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt to spice it up

a plate of chopped coconut chips

Instructions:

As I've said, it's almost too easy to make these:

Tip No.1: If the dried apricots you are using are not moist enough already (most of them aren't), put them in water for a couple of hours beforehand to soften them up.

Just put everything in a blender and mix mix mix!

Tip No.2: Put the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes before making the balls.

Take small parts of the mixture and make little balls with your hands and roll them in coconut chips, that you crushed with your hands (or properly chopped if you prefer that).

Just keep on rolling! (Anybody else having a 90s reference moment right now?)

Lastly, I made these two very asymmetrical boxes to store and transport my treats.

Two funny little boxes (but made with lots of love!).

So, if you're looking for a healthy dessert without processed sugar, eggs, flour and so on... I dare you to try these!

Bon Appetit!

[Recipe] White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Do you remember when I told you about my failed attempt of making a nice thank you gift for the doctor and the staff that I've been working with for the last couple of weeks? (Hint.) Well, I was given a chance to make it all good because I have to return to the health center tomorrow for some unresolved business (the doctor borrowed me a book that I now no longer need). 

[Recipe] Braised Red Cabbage with Apple and Onion

Braised Red Cabbage with Apple and Onion

Everybody says you should eat seasonal food that you can find and buy locally, in your neighbours garden if possible. So I decided to do just that. Since I live in a big (disclaimer: the adjective is debatable and depends on the reader's perspective) city (the lovely Ljubljana) and my neighbours don't have gardens (they live in their own crowded appartements just like I do) I chose to go to my parents' house and steal their food. They have a lovely garden and, this time around, plenty of cabbage.