Kale and delicious Kale chips!

Kale.... amazing Kale. We are hearing so much about it lately! I amsure you have heard it many times already but some benefits of this wonder green food include...

• Cholesterol-lowering benefits (even more so steamed than raw!) 
• Anti-cancer properties found in bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate cancers. Isothiocyanates (ITCs) made from glucosinolates in kale play a primary role in achieving these cacner risk-lowering benefits.
• Support for the body's detoxification system via ITCs made from kale's glucosinolates helping to regulate detox at a genetic level.
• Researchers can now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale. With kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, kale's flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits in way that gives kale a leading dietary role with respect to avoidance of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.

So what do you do with kale? It is basically like a super lettuce! Add it to salads, sandwiches, sides, green smoothies, juices, anything you like! It is wonderful raw, but if you feel like being a little extra creative have a try at some kale chips in the oven.

All you need is coconut oil, some flavours such as cayenne pepper and your delicious kale.

Lightly spray the coconut oil over the kale, sprinkle with your flavouring and put in the over at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Better still to keep them raw put them in dehydrator for about 30min to an hour depending how crisp you would like them to be :)

Add the kale chips to a salad for a wonderful crunchy texture or each on its own. These are delicious! Today I added mine to a Greek salad...


It was bliss!!! :)

A Superfood Talk and Raw food Dinner with David Wolfe!

The start of June came very quickly. It was back in March when mum and I booked tickets to hear the Superfood master David Wolfe at Samudra in Dunsborough! Maybe our excitement made it come so quickly but it seemed to be over in a flash. While there was a full weekend retreat with David mum and I booked for a raw food dinner and evening talk about Superfoods and health. The talk previously throughout the day was apparently very eye opening and inspiring but this one was still just that.

Having a nice mother-daughter drive we had our 'pre-drinks' to prepare with mums amazing green smoothies!

Once we got there however after a look around it was straight to our raw dinner :) The tables were set up in lovely white with candle centrepiece!

Our dinner was yummy 'Rainbow Enchiladas' aka Mexican spiced zucchini wrap filled with tomatoes, mixed bean sprouts and dehydrated mushrooms topped with cashew 'sour cream', guacamole and a side of sweet pickled chillies... wow! Unfortunately it was a little spicy for mum but not letting anything go to waste very little was left over between us.

We had a little wander around Samudra and flicked through some very tempting books by David!

Mum bought the Superfood book and I got the 'naked chocolate' to match my cacao addiction which i realised i am not alone in! Having a whole book on cacao and the cacao bean has to be telling us something... this in one powerful superfood!

David himself was a great speaker. I loved his interaction with us all and his slide show taking health into perspective with a little humour. While I cannot go through all that was said there are two things that really hit me from his talk?

1. You can NEVER have too much cacao!! It truly is an amazing superfood known way back by the Mayan Inca's.
2. Mushrooms are superfoods I have never thought too much about! They are the only living thing that grows from something else (aka a tree) without taking over it, what properties would this indicate? Mushrooms are awesome anti-cancer foods!
3. The most 'super' superfoods are dark... red grapes, beetroot, cacao to name a few, the darker foods are the ones most rich in antioxidants, anti-cancer properties and full of nutrition!
4. Eating healthy and raw doesn't have to be so hard, you don't have to go 100% as that is impractical! Simply add a variety of raw foods into your diet slowly and you will fall into a healthy and wonderfully vibrant routine!

But his talk was very inspiring we learnt a lot there is so much I want to do!!
If you ever get a chance to listen to his talks i recommend you do, or have a read of one of his great books :)

Mum and I also had a treat of nut milk chai and a raw banoffee pie before we left but it was hard to choose from the mouth watering raw desert cabinet...

We ended the night on a high talking to David, thanking him for the wonderful talk and getting his signature in our new books :) unfortunately the camera man was not actually a camera person and the photo was a little blurry but it is still visible all the same :P

 

And before we knew it we were driving back home, our superfood life reignited again with raw and super ideas for our health and well being! I'm so thankful to share these health journey's with my mum, I must thank mum for starting us on this journey after learning about green smoothies, making them for us and our journey progressed! We have found a flare which is inside everyone, food is what makes us live, it is the maker of our bodies and mind and overall outlook on life. We all have the ability to make healthy choices and experiment, what is there to lose? Nothing, there is only so much to gain!

 

Thank you Samudra and David, we will be back again soon :)

 



 

P.S. when you have a chance look up 'Bernando LaPallo'... 111 years of age living on a raw food diet, AMAZING!!

 

Rockin Raw

xox

Cacao & Banana Quinoa Porridge

With colder mornings and winter here it has been nice to have a warm bowl of Quinoa flake porridge to start the day! Quinoa is a grain like seed that is packed with protein and other essential vitamins.
Quinoa flakes, made by steam-rolling quinoa, cook more quickly but retain all the vitamins and minerals found in the whole grains. One 1/2-cup serving of quinoa flakes contains about 21 percent of the recommended daily value of iron and 22 percent of the daily recommended value of magnesium. Quinoa flakes also contain large amounts of dietary fiber, protein and phosphorus. Start off your day with a nutritious serving of whole grains by eating cooked quinoa flakes for breakfast! :)  

Cacao & Banana Quinoa Porridge

1/3 cup Quinoa flakes (macro organics)
1 cup water
1 scoop Raw protein powder (optional)
1 tablespoon shredded coconut
1 tablespoon pepita's or sunflower seeds
1 heaped teaspoon cacao powder
1 banana sliced
Cinnamon to top

Bring water to the boil in a saucepan. Add Quinoa flakes and cook for 3 minutes until their small coils unwind.

Transfer to a serving bowl and add the protein powder (optional), coconut, cacao, seeds and any nuts or fruits you would like!

Mix together and top with sliced banana and cinnamon sprinkled on top... enjoy!

You could also add peanut butter, coconut butter, home made nutella, blueberries, raspberries, maybe even cook some apple in the pan with the Quinoa and cinnamon for new flavours? Alternatively you could cook the flakes in nut milk (or what milk you have), there is so much you can do with Quinoa flakes!

Coconut Protein Pancakes with Raw Banana-Cacao Granola and Nutella-Berry Sauce

I love creating different flavoured pancakes in Sundays, it is my lazy morning weekly treat! ... well one of them ;) this Sunday I was home in Bunbury and my sister and I were planning on heading to a local café for a healthy breakfast, but I couldn't resist the temptation to raid mum and Sarah's own healthy 'essentials' on the cupboard to create more tasty and healthy pancakes... and they didn't have any issues with my creations! With no real idea what I was doing except the goal of healthy, tasty, colourful and flavoursome pancakes (seems like a challenge itself!) I got creating...

Coconut Protein Pancakes with Banana-Cacao Granola and Nutella-Berry Sauce ...bit a melt in the mouth itself :P

There is three steps to this recipe, and they surprisingly didn't take too much time! The first thing I did was soak my Chia seeds, then as I prepared the rest of the recipe, putting everything into the food processor for the nutella-berry sauce was the last thing to do and the Chia seeds were in their lovely gel consistency :) So I would recommend 1. Soaking the Chia, 2. making the granola (it is easy!) then make the actual pancakes and while the second batch is cooking whizz up the rest of the Nutella-berry sauce.

Most ingredients such as the coconut cream and almond meal come from the macro organics range in Woolworths while coconut sugar, coconut flour, cacao and maca powder come from health food shops.

Banana-Cacao granola

1 ripe banana
1 small handful of shredded coconut
1 small handful of pepitas
1 tablespoon LSA
1 teaspoon maca powder (optional - could use mesquite powder or cacao powder!)
1 tablespoon cacao nibs

In a small bowl mix shredded coconut, pepitas, maca powder, cacao nibs and LSA until combined. This is open to variation and you could put in some chopped almonds or walnuts and any seeds you fancy!

Slice half a banana and cut the slices roughly into small pieces. Add to the dry mixture and mix together with a knife to coat the banana and prevent it from clumping together. Put the other half of banana to one side.

Coconut protein pancake

2 eggs
1 tablespoon coconut sugar (alternative - honey)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup coconut cream (macro organics)

1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 scoop natural or vanilla protein powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup nut milk (can use rice or dairy milk if you prefer)

Whisk the eggs, vanilla, coconut cream and sugar together.

Add the coconut flour, almond meal, protein powder, baking powder and nut milk and mix until smooth. You can add a little more milk if the mixture is too thick.

Heat a fry pan with a little Light Olive Oil on medium heat and add 1-2 scoops of pancake mixture per pancake depending on how big you want to make them. Two smaller pancakes were great for decorating on a plate but one large one each works too :)

Cook for 2-4 minutes until little bubbles form through the pancake. These are quite delicate and soft with the almond meal and coconut flour so carefully separate the edges with a spatula before you flip (the smaller the easier to flip!). Flip pancakes and cook for another 2-3 minutes until browned, transfer to a plate to decorate! And put another batch of pancakes into the pan.

Chia Nutella-Berry Sauce

1 tablespoon Chia seeds
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon coconut cream
1/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon home made nutella ... seriously if you can, make this!! it is delicious :D

Sarah's Home made Nutella :)

Soak the chia seeds in the water in a small bowl for 10-15 minutes.

Transfer to a food processor and add 1 tablespoon of home made nutella (you can use peanut butter or else 1-2 teaspoons of cacao powder for that hint of chocolate taste).

Add the coconut cream, nutella and 1/3 cup of fresh or frozen raspberries and process for around 30 seconds until smooth.

Excuse the old food processor ;)

And now you are ready to decorate!

With left over coconut cream drizzle this as the undercoat onto the pancakes, next add some Berry-Nutella sauce and a few slices of the left over banana.

Next top with the Banana-Cacao granola, some extra raspberries and sprinkle with coconut sugar... I absolutely love the different colours on these pancakes! It reminds me of Christmas with the red raspberries, green pepitas, white coconut cream and yellow banana.

I can't wait to try more colourful flavours with Cacao flavoured pancakes with blueberries or Apple and cinnamon... the possibilities are endless!! Needless to say my future health café will be sure to have a range of colourful pancakes on the menu :D