Sweet tooth

I suddenly found myself in acute need of something sweet.

1/2 ripe banana, mashed with a spoon
1,5 tbsp cashini butter (Artisana - cashew and sesame butter)
3 drops chocolate flavoured stevia
2 heaped tsp cocoa powder

Just mix it all together in a bowl. It tastes like chocolate icing. Yum!

Layered fudge

I came across Chocolate Covered Katie's blog via Hjertemat, and fell in love instantly. Her recipes are so tempting, so yummy! It truly encompasses all things chocolate-y and then some. One of the first recipes I tried from her blog was her chocolate fudge. I played around with it a bit, adding peanut butter amongst other things (which CCK actually did as well - a few weeks later) and it was absolutely delicious! Still is. And since I've played around with it a bit more, ending up with these pieces of layered fudge.



LAYERED FUDGE

5 tbsp coconut butter (I use Artisana)
3 tbsp cashew butter (Artisana)
1 very ripe banana
1 tbsp agave nectar
Pinch of salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.


Then remove about 1/3 of the mixture. Add 3-5 tbsp cocoa powder (I use Navitas Naturals) and 2-3 drops chocolate flavoured or plain stevia to the 2/3 and blend until the cocoa is properly incorporated. If you want more stevia, then add according to taste. I prefer this part to be rather dark and not too sweet, as the vanilla/toffee mixture is quite the opposite.


Then add 2 drops vanilla flavoured stevia and 4 drops toffee flavoured stevia, plus a pinch of vanilla bean powder to the remaining 1/3, mixing by hand.

Spread out the chocolate mixture on some cling film and pop it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes, just enough for it to harden.


Spread the vanilla/toffee flavoured mixture over the chocolate and place in freezer or fridge until it hardens.


Then cut into pieces and enjoy! I suppose it lasts quite a few days in the fridge, but they tend to disappear rather too quickly here...



PS: As I mentioned in my previous post (in Norwegian), I've decided that this blog will be bilingual. Just like my head. ;)

Popcorn og språkforvirring

Jeg klarer ikke å bestemme meg for om denne bloggen skal gå på engelsk eller norsk, så nå har jeg i grunnen landet på begge deler. Noe skriver jeg best om på engelsk, noe på norsk, og hvilket språk jeg tenker på varierer fra dag til dag. Så da får bloggen bli deretter. :)

Nok om det! Det har vært en lang sommer, på mange måter. Uvanlig lang ferie for meg, siden jeg er mellom jobber for tiden. Jeg har vel knapt hatt så lang ferie siden jeg gikk på ungdomsskolen. Deilig! Samtidig har det vært en vond sommer, med 22.7. Mange tanker og følelser å fordøye. Og en liten jente å ta seg av, en som er for liten til å skulle vite noe særlig om ondskap og forferdelse. En blanding av mye, med andre ord.

En ting har dog holdt seg gjennom hele sommeren, og det er min nyfunne begeistring for popcorn! Jeg har alltid syntes at popcorn var litt kjedelig, litt uinteressant i smaken. Men så plukket jeg opp et tips et sted om å bruke næringsgjær på popcornet - og bang, der var jeg frelst! Så her har det blitt poppet sikkert et par kilo popcorn siden mai. Og alle i familien liker det, både store og små.

Popcornet poppes som vanlig, vi har ikke micro og popper på gammeldags vis på komfyren. Jeg bruker rapsolje til å poppe i, men der gjør man akkurat som man vil. Mens poppingen pågår blander man krydderet:

3-5 ss næringsgjær
1 ts malt spisskummen (cumin)
1/2 ts salt
En liten klype chili - eller etter smak.

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Dette blandes sammen og settes til side til popcornet er ferdig. Når det skjer, har man oppi 1-2 ss kokosolje/smør/annen olje i det ferdigpoppete popcornet og rister godt på kjelen til det smelter og har fordelt seg jevnt på alt. Dette er rett og slett for at krydderet skal feste seg på popcornet, heller enn å falle rett til bunns i kjelen. Deretter rister man på kjelen igjen, atter en gang for å fordele godsakene - og vips, så er det klart.



Næringsgjær er rikt på B-vitaminer av flere sorter, deriblant B-12, som jeg lett får mangel på. Kanskje det er derfor jeg liker det så godt? I tillegg er det mye folat i næringsgjær, så sånn sett er det fint å spise for kvinner i fruktbar alder. Dette er ikke aktiv gjær, så man blir ikke gående med boblende mage av å spise det, bare så det er sagt! Mest av alt liker jeg rett og slett smaken, og koser meg med popcornet mitt.

Raw ice cream with chocolate sauce

Yum! Raw, healthy, dairy free, egg free (and gluten free) ice cream.



ICE CREAM

2 cups raw cashew nuts, soaked for a couple of hours
1 cup water
2/3 of a very ripe banana
8 drops liquid stevia (I use Sweet Leaf)
2 tbsp coconut oil (softened)
Pinch of salt
Peppermint extract to taste
Pinch of vanilla powder

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. My blender isn't strong enough to get it quite as smooth as regular ice cream, but close enough. I presume you could get it smoother in a Vita-Mix or similar. But my ice cream loving (and slightly milk intolerant) husband really, really liked this! Next, place the mixture in an ice cream maker if you have, otherwise freeze it the old-fashioned, manual way. It needs to come out of the freezer 30-60 minutes before you plan to eat it.


CHOCOLATE SAUCE (well, chocolate sauce for lazy people)

3 tbsp soft coconut oil
Yacon syrup to taste
Raw cacao powder to taste
Pinch of salt

Stir together. I didn't even bother to stir until smooth; as I said, chocolate sauce for lazy people - like me.

Lunch

Quinoa salad: Leftover red onions, leftover red and white quinoa, some feta cheese, chopped flat-leaf parsley and olive oil. And a few chili marinated olives on top. Yum!



And a smoothie for dessert. 1 banana, a handful cashew nut pulp, frozen raspberries, 1 tps maca powder*, 1 tsp lecithin, 1 tbsp hemp protein, cashew nut milk, water.



* If you're in Norway, it's not legal to import maca from outside the EU, so if you want to follow the rules, order from e.g. Goji King. That said, I have ordered from iherb, and got my maca. However, you do risk it being returned to sender.

Chocolate smoothie for breakfast

4-5 unsulphured dried apricots, soaked overnight
A handful raw cashews, soaked overnight
1 very ripe banana, preferably frozen in pieces
1,5 tbsp hemp protein powder
2 tbsp raw cacao powder
A splash agave nectar to taste
2,5 dl oat milk (I use calcium-enriched Oatly or home made)

Place all ingredients in blender, blend until smooth and enjoy!

If you don't have frozen bananas, add a few icecubes. I definitely prefer this smoothie cold. And add superfood powders as desired. Maca, camu camu, mesquite, lecithin powder all work well.

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Ras el hanout

Ah, what a wonderful spice mix! I bought a packet of this on a whim last time I ordered from Seasoned Pioneers. Today it helped create a quick, yet fragrant and tasty wannabe tagine.



What I used:

2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 onion, cut into half moons
A few cloves garlic
1 red chili
A good handful dried apricots, chopped
Roughly 3 dl chicken stock
About 3 tsp ras el hanout
1 red pepper, chopped

Fry the onions, garlic and chili in some oil until soft, add the ras el hanout and fry for another minute or so. Then add the chicken and let it brown. Next throw in the apricots, give it a stir then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil and let it cook under a lid. Meanwhile, cook some bulgur wheat to serve. Add the chopped pepper when everything is nearly done.

Light and zesty

With the new year I always fancy lighter meals. Christmas meals are generally heavy and fatty, and although we do eat lighter meals in between Christmas and New Year's Eve, once January is here I crave stir-fries, fish and vegetables. And so today's dinner combined all of those - we made a halibut stir-fry. And it was so delicious!

HALIBUT STIR-FRY

For the marinade:
2 limes, juiced
A large pinch chili flakes
2 tbsp soy sauce
About a handful chopped coriander, leaves and stalks

4-500 g halibut filet, diced (kveite)

Marinate the fish briefly (10 minutes should do it), then gently fry in the wok.



For the stir fry:
1 bunch spring onions
250 g green beans
A bit of grated fresh ginger

Add to the wok when the fish looks nearly ready.



To serve:
2 handfuls raw cashews, quickly roasted in a dry wok
Plenty of chopped coriander

Sprinkle nuts and coriander over the top, and voila! Dinner is served in half an hour.



Halibut is so delicious, and easy to cook with. Mine fell apart today, mostly due to an eager nearly-2-year-old's attempt to help mummy. I do believe it will keep its shape in a stir-fry when not being bashed with a spatula.

Winter comfort

Winter came early in Norway this year, and to the rest of Europe for that matter, which means that some winter favourites have been recreated - without sugar. My husband and I love a cup of cocoa on cold winter nights. Here's the recipe for the one we've been making a lot of in the past few weeks. The recipe gives two large cups.

COCOA

1 tbsp cacao butter
2 tbsp coconut oil
1,5 tbsp yacon syrup
1 tsp agave nectar (or other sweeteners if you please - agave isn't all that much better than regular refined sugar)
2 heaped tbsp cacao powder
1 tbsb carob powder
A pinch of Himalaya salt
Almond milk - about 7 dl

Melt the fats over low heat, mix in the sweeteners, add the cacao and carob and whisk until smooth. Add the almond milk and gently heat. If you want to keep the ingredients raw, stop at 40C. We usually leave it a bit longer, I would guess around 60C.

More truffles

We've been away on holiday, which is why it's been quiet here the past few weeks. Now we're back, and I'm making Christmas sweets! Today's truffles were particularly good, so here's the recipe (roughly, at least).

DARK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

12 dates, pitted
8 unsulphured dried apricots
2 tbsp almond butter (I make my own according to this Norwegian tutorial)
A handful walnuts
A sprinkle of Himalaya salt
3 tsp yacon powder
1-2 tbsp carob powder
4 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
Coconut oil to the right consistency

As before - place all ingredients in a food processor and process until you have a smooth mixture. Roll into balls and cover with dessicated coconut, nuts or cocoa powder.

These truffles are not very sweet, but nice and chocolaty.

Chocolate truffles

Inspired by this blog post (in Norwegian), I made chocolate truffles at the weekend. They were absolutely delicious!

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

125 g dates
3 tbsp ground almonds (I used oven-dried leftovers from making almond milk)
1 tbsp yacon syrup
1 tbsp yacon powder
3-4 tbsp raw cocoa powder
1 heaped tsp maca powder
2-3 tbsp virgin coconut oil (start with 2 and add more if necessary)
1 tsp cinnamon

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and combine until you have an even, sticky mixture. Add a bit more coconut oil (if too dry) or cocoa powder (if too moist) to get the right consistency if necessary. I also added a splash of agave syrup to get the taste exactly right. Roll into balls.

Lastly I rolled them in more of the almond milk leftovers.

Semi-raw chocolate mousse

I experimented a bit in the kitchen yesterday, and the Saturday night treat we ended up with was a semi-raw chocolate mousse. Here's the recipe!

SEMI-RAW CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

1 tin coconut cream (Kara for preference)
Raw cocoa powder to taste
1 tbsp carob powder (or use more cocoa if you don't have carob)
Sweeteners of choice (I used 2 tsp yacon syrup, 1 tsp yacon powder and a dash of agave nectar)
1 tsp maca powder (may easily be skipped if you don't have or don't like)

Gently melt/heat the coconut cream. If you want to keep this as raw as possible, keep the temperature at under 40 C. When the coconut cream is liquid, add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Then pour into a serving dish and leave to cool a bit before you refrigerate. Leave for a few hours to set.

Nut bars with raw chocolate topping

I've been missing granola bars. They're quite brilliant when it's a bit too long until your next meal. However, my old recipe was chuck-full of sugar and not all that healthy. So today I just did it!

NUT BARS

2 dl raw cashews
1 dl raw peanuts
1 dl raw Brazil nuts (paranuts)
1 dl dessicated coconut
0,75-1 dl flax seeds
A handfull sunflower kernels

3 tbsp virgin coconut oil
3 tbsp organic peanut butter (I used the creamy variety)
12 drops SweetLeaf Liquid Stevia with Vanilla Crème flavour
Agave nectar to taste (or other sweeteners)

Roast the nuts lightly. (This step can be skipped if you want raw bars. I'm allergic to many nuts unless they're heat treated.) I also added the coconut towards the end of the roasting process.



Then pulse the nuts in a food processor. That should leave you with something looking like this:



Now mix coconut oil, peanut butter and sweeteners. You may need to place your bowl in a bain-marie to get a smooth mixture.



Pour into the crushed nuts and coconut, then mix.



Press into a pan and refrigerate.



Make raw chocolate as you like it, or melt dark chocolate (70-85% cocoa solids) with a bit of coconut oil and sweeteners of your choice. Pour over the refrigerated nut mixture and leave to set. Then cut into bars or squares. Voila!



(By the time I took the last picture my husband had already run off with a bar. He likes them.)

Kale and roast veg lasagne

Today's dinner was a rather successful veggie lasagne. Relatively quick to make, too, as I roast the vegetables last night. It tasted nice and creamy, and had a bit of kick.

KALE & ROAST VEG LASAGNE

1 onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 large aubergine, roughly diced
1 courgette, sliced
A few mushrooms, quartered
1 red pepper, roughly diced
6-8 tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on size

Place in a greased ovenproof dish and drizzle with olive oil, dried chili, oregano, a bit of pepper, flake salt and a pinch of sugar. Roast for about 40 mins on 200C.

Kale
Lasagne sheets
Passata
1 tub of crème fraîche
Parmesan

In the meantime, rinse and shred kale. I used 6 large leaves. Grease a lasagne dish. Find lasagne sheets (I used fresh, I would pre-cook dried ones) and crème fraîche. Grate parmesan cheese.

When the roast veg are ready, layer like this in the lasagne dish: Kale, roast veg, a bit of passata, a few dollops of crème fraîche, lasagne sheets. Finish with crème fraîche and parmesan. Place back in the oven for another 15-20 mins.

Scandinavian style wholemeal waffles

Being home with a feverish child, I wanted something yummy for lunch. So I finally managed to put together a wholemeal waffle recipe I'm happy with.



WAFFLES

3 eggs
5 tbsp Sukrin (erythritol)
2 dl wholemeal wheat flour
2 dl wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cardamom
approx. 2 dl milk
100 g butter, melted

Beat the eggs and Sukrin until fluffy. Mix in half the flour, the baking powder and the cardamom. Then add half the milk. Repeat with the rest of the flour and milk. Lastly add the melted butter. You should end up with a slightly runny batter. Bake in waffle iron.

Breakfast pancakes

These have become a favourite with us. I make the batter in the evening and leave it in the fridge overnight. That means the bran goes soft, but it still tastes great. I've tried without roasting the bran, but it's not qute the same. The pancakes are also popular in my daughter's daycare lunchbox. I found the recipe on a Norwegian forum a few years back, and hereby translate and share it.

WHOLEMEAL BANANA PANCAKES

2 tbsp honey
80 g oat bran

160 g whole grain rye flour
2,5 tsp baking powder
A good dash of brown flax seeds (I use about a handful)
Cardamom
3 dl water (approx.)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil or other neutral oil
1 (very) ripe banana

Melt the honey over medium heat in a non-stick frying pan, then add the bran. Roast until it smells nutty and turns golden brown.

In the meantime, mix the dry ingredients and mash the banana. Add the bran to the dry mixture and stir well. Add water and oil, and mix until you have a thick batter. Add the banana and mix again.

Fry in a dry non-stick pan without grease.

Soup for sore throats

Soup is perfect when you have a cold. It slides down easily. Particularly this one, which has a silky smooth texture when blended. It's based on this recipe (in Norwegian), but I made some adjustments, as always. I'm unable to follow a recipe without changing it.

CARROT AND PARSNIP SOUP
500 g carrots
400 g parsnips
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
A good inch of fresh ginger
800 ml vegetable stock
200 ml orange juice
Lemon juice and more ginger to taste

Scrub or peel carrots and parsnips and cut into chunks. Chop onion and garlic, peel ginger. Fry the onion in a bit of oil for at least ten minutes, until it's fragrant. Add a pinch of salt to keep it from browning. Add the garlic and let it fry for a minute or two, then add carrots, parsnips and most of the ginger. Pour over vegetable stock and bring to a boil, then cook for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked through.

Place the soup in a blender and blend until smooth. Place back in the pan and bring it back to a boil. Add orange juice, some more ginger and a bit of lemon to taste.

I made puff pastry cheese swirls on the side. Roll out a sheet of ready-made puff pastry, drizzle one half with finely grated cheddar and press the other half over. Slice into strips and twist them. Bake on 180C for about 10 mins.

Lunch for the poorly

Celery with hummus.

HUMMUS
1 can chickpeas (200 g)
1 large tsp tahini
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbsp olive oil
A large splash of lemon juice (about half a lemon)
A pinch of cumin seeds
A pinch of paprika
A bit of salt

Combine the ingredients in a food processor until smooth and creamy. Eat with a celery stick.

Chocolate banana cupcakes

These are based on Julie Goodwin's Lemon Diva Cupcakes, but with cocoa powder and banana instead of lemon zest.

CUPCAKES
100 g butter
165 g sugar (I use Tate&Lyle caster sugar)
A splash vanilla extract (e.g. Nielsen-Massey)
2 eggs
200 g flour
1,5 tsp baking powder
3-4 tbsp cocoa powder
100 ml milk
2 very ripe bananas, mashed

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Add the eggs one by one and mix well. Mix flour, baking powder and cocoa, then stir in about half into the egg and butter mixture. Add half the milk, then the rest of the flour mix and the rest of the milk. Lastly stir in the mashed bananas. Divide mixture into lined muffin pan. I got 10 cupcakes out of this recipe. Bake at 180C for 18-20 mins.

ICING
60-70 g chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
25 g butter
2-3 tbsp icing sugar
50-100 ml single cream

Melt chocolate, butter and icing sugar together over low heat, then add cream until the mixture emulsifies. Leave to cool.