Pancakes equals happiness!

Weekends now mean one thing and one thing only:

PANCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKES!!!!!!!

Here are a few of my latest creations. They can be made vegan by substituting the eggs with two small, ripe, mashed bananas.

A simple but great tasting pancake batter is my spelt cinnamon pancake recipe. This can easily be modified to make the mixture more adventurous.












Spelt Cinnamon Pancakes
Makes six pancakes. Serves 2 or one very greedy person. No names mentioned...

100g spelt flour
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 medium eggs
200-250ml unsweetened almond milk or similar
a few drops almond extract
Coconut oil for frying.
Cinnamon, almond butter and fresh fruit to serve.

Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl. Mix in the eggs and then gradually add the milk until the consistency is fluid but still relatively thick (If you leave the batter to rest you may need to add more milk as the protein powder can make the mixture thicken). Heat a large frying pan with a teaspoon of coconut milk. Slowly spoon in the batter to form about three to four small pancakes at a time. Fry gently for a few minutes and use a spatula to turn them over. They should be lightly browned on both sides.

When all the pancakes are ready, spread the first one with almond butter and then stack them with banana and berries of your choice. Drizzle with honey or syrup and sprinkle with cinnamon. serve with nice-cream and enjoy!

Nice-Cream:

Plain:
Two medium sized frozen bananas
a squeeze of agave syrup or two medjool dates
A dash of unsweetened almond milk

Blitz in a high powered blender until it has thick consistency of ice-cream. Serve immediately.

Variations:
Add a large dessert spoon of peanut butter
Add a cup of frozen mixed berries

Omit the almond milk for a thicker result.

Pancake variations:

Chocolate pancakes with peanut butter nice-cream and blueberries: Simply add 50g cacao powder to the dry mixture.

I'll be making apple and cinnamon pancakes this weekend. Keep an eye out on Instagram for the results!

Eat well. Xx

Smoothie operator

Just when I thought I had mastered the art of making and drinking smoothies, I discover I am doing it all wrong.

I have fallen for smoothie bowls. Search for #smoothiebowl on Instagram and hundreds of beautiful creations will appear and if you're like me you'll be salivating and thinking about them day and night.

The idea is to make a smoothie and eat it from a bowl. Revolutionary, non? It makes sense. When you blitz a meal and drink it down quickly, the digestive process doesn't get a chance to work as well as it would if you were chewing solid food and then swallowing it. When we chew we produce amylase in our saliva. This is an important enzyme which breaks down starch and kicks off the rest of the digestive process in your body. Your liquid meal will arrive in your stomach more quickly than solid food would, meaning you might not digest it properly or absorb all the nutrients as well. 

What I find so appealing about these bowls of loveliness is how they can be decorated to look so appetising. To make a smoothie bowl, I start with a base of vegan milk or coconut water, a banana (preferably frozen), a tea spoon or two of nut butter and a scoop of vegan/veggie protein powder. Then you can freestyle it to your mood! Add fruit (fresh or frozen), powdered greens or spirulina, oats, avocado, seeds. Finally, to decorate your gloop use fruit, nuts, seeds, goji berries, dried mullberries, shelled hemp seeds, chia seeds, dessicated coconut or coconut chips, cacao nibs, nut butters, superfoods, even edible flowers! The only limit is your imagination.

I have compiled a few recipes below but they are so versatile and can be varied as much as you choose. I'm a bit of a renegade in the kitchen and don't tend to measure out ingredients so just try and experiment a bit with quantities. It's all personal preference anyway.

I use a Vitamix in my kitchen. It is an expensive piece of equipment but so worth it. It is high powered and the blades can deal with frozen bananas, hard nuts and ice for when I need an emergency frozen margarita or six.

Cheeky Monkey

1 tablespoon chia seeds soaked over night in vanilla rice milk

8fl oz vanilla rice milk

1 frozen banana 

1/2 cup organic jumbo rolled oats

1 scoop of banana split spirutein protein powder (Nature's Plus)

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

Blitz all together in food processor.

(If the consistancy is too thick just add some filtered water and give it another whizz in the food processor)

For topping: toasted coconut chips, banana slices and raw cacao nibs.

Green Energy

8fl oz vegan milk like almond milk

1 frozen banana

2 scoops of Source of Life energy shake (From Nature's Plus)

1/2 cup jumbo rolled oats

2 tspoons almond butter

1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

To top: raw cacao nibs, dessicated coconut, fresh strawberries and spirulina crunchies

Berry Tempting

8fl oz vegan milk or coconut water

1 frozen banana

1 cup mixed frozen berries

1 tablespoon acai powder

1 teaspoon almond butter

To top: 1 sliced kiwi, strawberries, dessicated coconut and cacao nibs.

Chocolate Dream

8fl oz Coconut water

1/2 ripe avocado 

2 tablespoons raw cacao powder

1 tablespoon ground almonds

2 medjool dates

To top: 1/2 ripe avocado, raspberries, blackberries, whole almonds, toasted coconut chips. 

I defy you not to go to your happy place whilst eating this!

Here are some variations:

Total food porn. 

Now go forth and create beautiful smoothie bowls!

Eat well. Xx

www.naturesplus.com for protein powder info and stockists

www.bonpom.com for raw super foods and treats!