Cinnamon Banana Icecream

Now that bananas are coming down to a somewhat affordable price here in Australia I can get back into making icecream! As long as you have some bananas in your freezer it only takes a few minutes to whip up this tasty soft icecream. You can really add any other flavours you like to the frozen bananas to create you own frosty treat. Try it with some cacao powder, lucuma or some berries. And a tip for freezing bananas: Wait until they are spotty then peel them, break into chunks and store them in a container in the freezer. That way you won’t get frostbite fingers trying to peel the skins off!

Cinnamon Banana Icecream

One Serving

3 Frozen Bananas

2 Medjool Dates

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 Avocado (Optional)

Either blend all ingredients in a vitamix blender using the tamper or use a food processor. If you have a twin gear juicer like the Greenstar or a single auger juicer you can push the ingredients through using a blank plate or to the manufacturers instructions for nut butters.

You’ll need to eat this right after blending unlike dairy based icecream it will become solid and icy if you store it in the freezer.

Oh, and this is perfectly acceptable to eat for breakfast on a hot summers day. Icecream for breakfast!

Vegetable Noodles with Currants & Mandarins

This meal was so delicious I had it two nights in a row. Salads don’t have to be just lettuce and tomatoes. Fruits and seeds make a salad shine! So don’t be afraid to use them.

Another key to creating variety in salads is texture. It can make all the difference to a vegetable. Think of a carrot stick versus some finely grated carrot. They’re almost two different flavours. So for this dish I used one of my favourite kitchen tools, a Spiralizer. It’s a must have in the raw food kitchen. It turns any solid vegetable into long curly noodles. Which makes food so much more fun!

Just use the quantities that you feel like. Lots of noodles, with the extras as garnishing. For the sauce just play around with the quantities to have it as sweet or as spicy as you like.

red cabbage
carrot
daikon radish
zucchini
pumpkin seeds
sunflower seeds
mandarins
currants
avocado

For the dressing
lemon juice
raw honey
toasted sesame oil
cayenne pepper
sea salt

1. Soak the seeds in water for a few hours. Drain and rinse. If you have a dehydrator you can dehydrate the seeds for a crunchy texture, but they will still work fine as is.
2. Spiralize or grate the carrot, daikon and zucchini
3. Use a mandoline to finely slice the red cabbage, if you don’t have a mandolin, just use a large knife.
4. Peel the mandarins and divide into segments. Dice segments into thirds.
5. Dice the avocado and mix with the currants and the rest of the ingredients.
6. Whisk the dressing ingredients together and drizzle over the salad. If you have time, let the dish sit for an hour or more to marinade. This will intensify the flavor and soften the vegetables.

Sweet Rainbow Slaw

I got home from my awesome Vinyasa Playlist Yoga class a bit late last night and wanted to make something super fast and easy without a lot of equipment. For this coleslaw I just threw everything into the food processor using the grating attachment. I just used what I had in the refrigerator, but you could easily use a white cabbage, add in some red peppers, some oranges and avocado would work well instead of seeds too.

 

Sweet Rainbow Slaw

red cabbage
carrots
apple
celery
orange & lemon juice
raisins (or sultanas or currants)
soaked sunflower & pumpkin seeds

Using a grating blade shred the cabbage, carrots, apple & celery in your food processor. Throw this mix into a bowl and add raisins & seeds. Then squeeze orange & lemon juice over the top.

 

Watermelon & Mint Drink

The warm weather is finally on it’s way and all I want is fruit. Watermelon is one of my favourites to eat in the morning because it’s super hydrating. All you need for this drink is watermelon and fresh mint. So simple and so good.

Watermelon & Mint Drink

Watermelon

Fresh Mint

If you are using a seedless watermelon simply chop up the fruit and blend until smooth. If you’re using a seeded watermelon, remove the seeds then blend. Add some mint and pulse until the mint is finely chopped.

To spritz things up a bit add a little sparkling mineral water.

Pineapple & Banana Green Smoothie

Now that bananas are starting to come down in price here in Australia I can afford to have them in my green smoothies for breakfast again. Oh bananas how I have missed you! Finally my drinks are creamy again. Prices have been up at around $18kg over the winter as a lot of the crops were damaged in the Queensland floods. Now you can find conventionally grown bananas in the markets for as low as $6kg. Just in time for when your body starts craving more fruit!

Pineapple & Banana Green Smoothie

Sweet Ripe Pineapple*

Ripe Spotty Bananas

Curly Kale, stalks removed

Fresh Mint Leaves

Water

I just filled my blender about 1/3 full of broken up bananas, 1/3 full of cubed pineapple, 1/6 of kale, a few mint leaves and then poured in water to around half way. There are no rules for making green smoothies though. Use less water if you like a thick smoothie or more if you like it juicy. The flavour will depend on the produce you have available and what suits your tastebuds.

Blend in vitamix until ultra smooth

I like to drink my smoothies out of a 1L widemouth mason jar with a glass dharma straw. They’re great for taking a smoothie along to work.

* A ripe pineapple should smell sweet and have quite a yellow skin. Unripe pinapples will give you that tart burning feeling on your tongue if you eat too much, so try to  pick a nice ripe pineapple.

Mexican Corn Salad

Sweetcorn has just started coming into season and when I spotted them on special at the market I knew what what going to be on tonights menu. This recipe is great as a salad or instead of chopping the lettuce you could fill the leaves and eat like a taco!

 

Mexican Corn Salad

Fresh Sweetcorn Kernels

Diced Tomatoes

Diced Red Bell Pepper

Diced Red Onion

Chopped Lettuce

Avocado

Lemon Juice

Cayenne Pepper

Himalayan Salt

Dried Garlic Powder

Orange Tahini Salad Dressing

Orange Tahini Salad Dressing

The sweet creamy dressing makes the most of the delicious navel oranges that are in season now. It comines well with greens like cos lettuce or cabbage. Top with some grated carrots and raisins for extra sweetness and you’re good to go!

Ingredients

Orange Tahini Dressing

2 Tbsp Raw Tahini*

3 Medium Oranges

1/4 Cup Water

Salad Ingredients

1 Head of Cos/Romaine Lettuce

3 Large Carrots

1/4 Cup Raisins

Optional: Pepitas/Pumpkin Seeds (soaked & dehydrated)

Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt to taste

Method

Peel the oranges and blend with the tahini. Add the water a bit at a time as needed depending on how juicy your oranges are. You don’t want this to turn into a smoothie!

Finely grate the carrots. Using a fine grater will give you more flavoursome carrots.

Finely slice the lettuce and toss everything together with the raisins and pepitas

Add salt to taste.

*How to make raw tahini

Raw tahini is expensive to buy and I’ve never seen it in Australia or New Zealand, so I make my own in my Vitamix blender.

Simply take a couple of cups or more of raw sesame seeds and blend on a low setting.

Use the tamper to keep pushing the seeds down as the mixture will rise up the walls of the blender. It will take a few minutes for the seeds to begin to release the oils and start forming a paste. You may need to stop now and again to prevent the mixture from overheating. You’ll be able to feel it warm up on the ouside of the container.

Then just continue to blend until you reach a consistency that you’re happy with.

The Lunch Bunch: Raw Sandwich

Today I made a super easy raw sandwich to bring for my lunch. I was inspired by Megan Elizabeth’s Hoagie Recipe which you can view here.

All you do is take a romaine/cos lettuce heart, leave it intact and stuff in all of your favourite veges with some avocado or raw tahini or dates. Today I used grated carrot, cucumber, tomato and avocado. It stays together pretty well which is what makes it a great lunch to take to work or out for a picnic.

So easy!

Spiced Apple Chia Porridge

Yay we are so excited about this breakfast! I have it after high intensity training in the morning to support my energy production for the day. It’s like having a delicious apple pie pudding for breakfast. You also can make it the night before or keep a batch in the fridge for a few days so it’s ready when you are.

This high fibre and nutrient breakfast provides us with nice evenly sustained energy release throughout the day. It supports blood sugars by slowly breaking down and releasing usable energy. This helps to keep us calm, relaxed, and focused rather than creating those nasty highs and lows you can get from an overly refined breakfast or worse still, no breakfast at all!

Your tummy and liver will be happy too! It has some yummy nutrients and fibre to help reduce digestive spasm, pain and bloating and to help regulate bowel function.

Spiced Apple Chia Porridge

Serves 4

4 cups fresh raw almond milk*

2 medjool dates

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 sweet apples, chopped

1/2 cup chia seeds

1/2 cup raisins

pinch of himalayan or sea salt

 

Method

Blend 3 cups of the almond milk with the dates and spices in a blender until smooth

Add in 1 chopped apple and pulse until roughly mixed

Pour into a large bowl and stir in the chia seeds

Leave to sit for 15-30 minutes to allow the chia seeds to absorb the liquid

Serve in smaller bowls topped with chopped apple, raisins, almond milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon

Above are white chia seeds before they are soaked. You should be able to find them in most health foods stores and many supermarkets are carrying them now also. You can get black or white chia, both are fine to use in this recipe.

*To make fresh raw almond milk

Soak raw almonds in water overnight

Drain and rinse

Blend 1 part almonds to 3 parts filtered water, if you have time, let this sit for 10-20 minutes to thicken

Strain through a nutmilk bag or mesh bag or through a fine sieve

It’s also ok to use it unstrained, it will just be more fibrous

Save the pulp to use in other things such as raw crackers, raw cookies or fruit & nut balls

The Lunch Bunch: Crunchy Crouton Salad

Wondering what to do with all that juice pulp from your green juice? I’ve been making a lot of nutmilks and juices recently and to use up the pulp from those I mixed it all together with some flaxseed to make these crunchy little crutons for my salad. You could make a big batch and keep them on hand to add a bit of texture to a salad. This morning I threw the crutons into a container with a few other things for lunch. Took all of about 5 minutes to prepare. Easy.

Crutons*

Dehydrated tomato slices

Chopped Tomatoes

Chopped Red Peppers

Mung Bean Sprouts

Mixed Salad Greens

Lemon Juice

Savoury Yeast Flakes

Pink Murray River Salt

Cracked Pepper

*To make the crutons

Save the pulp when you make juice or nutmilks.  I had sesame & almond nut milk pulp and spinach, carrot & celery juice pulp.

Add some ground golden flaxseeds, savoury yeast flakes, salt & olive oil. They would also be lovely with some italian herbs like rosemary, thyme, basil and oregano.

Mix everything together until light and fluffy.

Add just enough water to make the mixture bind together and roll into small balls & dehydrate until  dry and crunchy.