Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

So this week we are eating healthy. Last week with all the wedding cake making and devouring, well lets just say it felt like it was time to do a bit of a sugar detox. So all week we have been avoiding sweets and treats. The only problem being that it can leave one feeling quite deprived, and that my friends is the key to failure in any diet! So I decided to explore how to introduce a little treat in a healthy, no added sugar especially, way.

Can you tell that I've missed chocolate this week??!

This chocolate is dark (50-70% cocoa) chocolate so it has less sugar than most and as you can see, we have used it sparingly but appropriately. The idea being that this is a little bit of what you want with a whole lot of healthy and delicious stuff that will keep us full and feed our muscles post workout. *Just a little note about dark chocolate, be careful selecting your dark chocolate, higher quality does not always equate to better outcome baking-wise. I have never had much luck with Lindt 70% for example. So sometimes it's better to go for a lower percentage but guaranteed results.

So what's inside  - Oats for digestion
                            - Almonds for protein and vitamin E
                            - Chocolate Protein powder for obvious reasons
                            - Flaxseeds for those Omega 3s
                            - Hazelnuts for linoleic acid and folate
                            - peanut butter for flavour and protein
                            - cashew butter for texture and creaminess
                            - milk
                            - optional agave nectar for sweetness
                            - Delicious Dark Chocolate for cancer fighting anti-oxidants!!

So as you can see these babies pack a powerful nutrient punch and are absolutely scrumptious to boot. My ones are vegetarian but not vegan. However they could easily be made vegan with a brown rice or other vegan protein powder and a nut/soya milk instead of the cow's milk.

So what will you need - Food processor or nutri-bullet/other blender that can mill
                                     - saucepan
                                     - bowl and spoon.

Ingredients

100g/ 1.25 cups Oats
20-30/  1/4 cup Almonds
10-15/ 1/8 cup Hazelnuts
2 tbsp brown and golden flaxseeds/linseeds
2 Scoops Chocolate protein powder ( I used whey)
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tsp cashew butter
optional tsp agave nectar
100ml/ 1/3 cup milk

1 - Using a food processor or appropriate blender, mill your oats, then nuts, then flaxseeds into flours.

2 - Add to a bowl and mix together well

 

3 - In a small saucepan heat your milk, peanut butter and cashew butter (with your agave nectar is
     you want) and mix continuously until smooth. Let cool slightly

4 - Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add chocolate chips and mix
     through.

5 - Line a bread pan with clingfilm and then pour in the mixture. it will be sticky but a silicone
      spatula will help. Flatten it out and cover with the clingfilm before chilling in the fridge.

6 - Remove from the fridge and cut into pieces of your chosen size. I would advise smaller rather
      than larger as these pack quite the protein punch and are therefore quite filling. Then place in a
      freezer, if possible or back in the fridge to chill further.

7 - Melt your remaining dark chocolate over a bain-marie or in the microwave in careful bursts of 20
      seconds, with a drop of milk, stirring between each blast. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract to your
      chocolate and stir through. Temper if you want by melting 2/3 and then finely chopping last and
      adding and stirring through to melt.

7 - Remove one bar from the fridge/freezer at a time to dip into the dark chocolate and place on a
     wire rack to let excess drip off.

8 - Let your chocolate set, store in the fridge and then enjoy; after a workout or anytime =)

So the nutritional info on these. If you make 22 then each piece contains:

Calories - 77
Protein - 5g
Fat (mostly healthy) - 4g
And a whole lot of vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants as discussed above. 

I will also being doing a review of 'Orange is the New Black' season 3 over here so check it out if you're interested

Gifting food to beat the January blues

It has come to that time of the year again. Christmas is over and the post-Christmas blues are settling over the land. It doesn't help that the weather is still miserable. As a foodie and a blogger my least favourite aspect of this time of year is the annual January diet that everyone is on after the festivities just past. There is a general feeling that one must forgo all sweets and treats and as someone who likes to bake and share treats I  intensely dislike it. So how can you continue to bake and share these goodies with friends and family at this time of year. How about a moderation approach in the form of some for now, some for later?!

What am I talking about? Let me show you...

The gift in the back in a frozen roll of the cookie dough for these delicious peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies. So you can gift a friend, or yourself, with a few cookies to eat now and a frozen dough to bake at a later date (2-3 months if wrapped properly). If gifting to a friend it's important to write the date and some cooking instructions on your wrapping. I double wrapped the dough in cling film and then followed up with greaseproof paper with a little red ribbon for decoration.

So now let me tell you about this cookie recipe. These peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies have organic peanut-butter and 70% dark chocolate chips. So while they couldn't be considered healthy they are not half as unhealthy as store bought cookie dough.

Peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies

150g Unsalted Butter
70g Organic Peanut Butter
140g Muscovado sugar
140g Caster sugar
340g Bread flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 egg + one egg yolk
30ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g 70% Dark Chocolate chips

1. Melt together the butter and peanut butter in a saucepan

2. Pour in a bowl with the sugars and beat together.

3. In seperate bowls beat together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract and in another bowl the flour,
    soda and salt.

4. Alternate additions of the egg and the flour mixtures and beat to combine. This should form a
    thick dough, with a somewhat fudgy consistency.

5. When the dough is cool add the chocolate chips.

6. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour and up to 5 days. For the part that you are giving away frozen, pour onto cling-film without chilling and roll into a cylinder. At the very least, double wrap in cling-film and freeze. Then to present wrap in grease-proof paper and perhaps add a bow.

7. To bake the cookies, preheat your oven to 180'C and roll chucks of the dough into balls, spaced well apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or 15 minute from frozen. Remove from the oven and pat down with the back of a spatula. This will keep the cookies deliciously gooey on the inside while crispy on the outside. Let the cookies cool on the baking tray to finish cooking. Then enjoy some now, knowing you, or your friend has more for later.

Happy January!

Peanut Butter Choc chip Energy Balls

 So it's the week of my bf's birthday and we are getting all excited to celebrate. We are getting ready for a weekend of cake and fun times. I am very excited. That said other things are happening this week. I am going back to college (yay eternal student!) and there are a great many things to organize. So when I was thinking about what to make for this post I wanted something delicious, energy giving but healthy, as we want to be able to look good next weekend. Yet it was important that it was really delicious and enjoyable for the birthday boy and he has a nose for when things are  healthy (a term he uses disparagingly). After much sampling (he'd say not enough) the bf's verdict - 'Too tasty to be good for you!' Ah but that is where he is happily mistaken!

The ingredient list for these puppies is beautifully short and filled with healthy ingredients that do not include any dairy, wheat or processed sugar.  The end result is all natural, raw, vegan and oh so good!

Peanutbutter Chocolate Chip Energy balls

10 dates
40 ml warm water
3 heaped tsp crunchy all natural peanut butter
2 heaped tsp smooth cashew butter
1 1/2 tsp agave nectar
40g 70% dark chocolate chips (for these to be vegan they need to contain no milk products)
100g organic oats

to cover:
Ground hazelnuts
Raw cocao

1- Soak the dates in the warm water for an hour or so

2 - If you have a blender blend the water and dates, if not pour the water into a bigger bowl and then chop up the soaked dates as much as possible and add them to the big bowl.

3 - Add the nut butters into the date mixture and mix well

4 - Then add the oats and mix thoroughly before adding the chocolate chips.

5 - Finally add the agave nectar. I added this last because if it's easy to gauge how much you need or want by adding bit by bit and tasting, you may want/need more or less.

6- Finally take small amounts and roll into balls before rolling in the ground nuts or the raw cocao.

The raw cocao has a strong flavour and adds a little more energy kick but my favourite and the bf's favorite was the ground hazelnuts. As you can see I did a relatively small batch here so feel free to double or triple the recipe (I think bf would have preferred if I had ;). Also if you don't have agave nectar feel free to use honey but just note that they will not longer be vegan. So I do hope you try these I am very very happy with them and I hope you enjoy.

Look at the deliciousness!

Fluffer-nutter Blondies - my love affair with marshmallow continues

The heat is on around here the last week or so. I hesitate to call it a heat-wave because the temperature hasn't really gone above 30'. However, everyone is feeling it, mostly because it never really heats up here. Whenever it does I am reminded of living in the states during the summer. The heat, the humidity, the sound of crickets and the glow of fireflies. I'm even nostalgic for the hum of the air-conditioning and the whir of the fan. During the height of the summer in America I slept with both the air-con and the fan on, which when combined with the crickets and the constant purring of my little furry friend mad for some noisy nights, but I loved it!! Nowadays I sometime replicate that sound with noise maker apps on hot summer nights and I sleep like a baby.

So with the combination of heat and humidity this week and the opportunity to attend a party in the house of someone who grew up state side, I knew I would have to bake something truly evocative of that fascinating nation. I found inspiration in the blog of not your mommas cookie but decided to go with a different recipe for ease of handling and the outcome was somewhat addictive.

Wanna bite?

To make these I started with a basic blondie recipe and then added reeses peanut chips and mini marshmallows to give the fluffernutter flavour. Other recipes call for peanut butter in the batter but I find that peanut butter is such a strong flavour that it overpowers the whole blondie. However the affect of the chip is that some bites taste of peanut butter while others have that delicious treacle essence of brown sugar.

Fluffer-nutter Blondies

300g soft brown sugar
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
110g unsalted butter
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence
90g mini marshmallows
85g peanut butter chips

To decorate
Marshmallow fluff
chopped peanut brittle/chopped peanuts

1. Preheat the oven to 170'.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until smooth
3. In a separate bowl sieve together the flour, salt and baking powder.
4. Add the egg yolks and vanilla to the butter and sugar, beat together
5. Beat in the flour mixture.
6. Once the dough is smooth, add the marshmallows and beat vigorously.
7. Add the chips and beat one final time.

8. Line a bread tin with greaseproof paper and spread the dough evenly
9. Bake for 50 minutes, remove, slice, seperate the slices and then bake again for another 10 minutes

10. Cool on a wire wrack before decorating with marshmallow fluff and peanut bits.

11. Oh...............and enjoy =)