HEALTH FOOD HAUL

My beautiful bounty of health food

Just got in from a fabulous morning out with my dad and have jumped straight on my laptop to blog it. Rest of the family are away so we went to the local town of Petersfield and visited this great health food shop called 'The Bran Tub' then loaded with goodies headed over to a health food cafe called 'The Natural Apothecary'. Seriously I'm buzzing from this trip, we never get specialized health stores this good in where I live. So here are the things I chose to buy and some pictures of the health food cafe for you all!

 Ok, this is my first try at kale chips and seriously I don't know why you would choose potato crisps over these. THEY ARE AMAZING. These ones are, raw, vegan and gluten free and as they're raw the chips are made though dehydrating them so no oil is needed for baking or frying. The cheesy taste comes from nutritional yeast and cashew nuts so not only do you get the goodness of kale but B12 and protein  from the yeast and nuts. Admittedly they are a little pricey (£3.95 for the tub if you cant see) but I would pay the money again for it with out a thought. Its worth it for the nutrition and intense crunchy savory hit you get.



Here's the Miso paste I got. Now I adore Miso soup and this Miso paste looked really interesting as it's a field bean barley Miso that's 'live' and unpasteurized. Because this Miso is made from field bean barley it means it's produced locally in the UK as the beans and barley can be grown in the cool climate of rainy Britain. Also being used to white Miso I thought it would be interesting to try a darker version as it's ment to have a deeper stronger flavor. If your anemic (like moi) or vegan or even vegetarian and need your B12, Miso is high in it and it can also help your immune system so get it down your gullet lads.

Next is some Buck Wheat puffs! Originally I was looking to see if they did Quinoa puffs but then I found these! I had trouble deciding between these and the Millet Puffs but these had less fat in them (however the Millet had more protein, you win some you lose some). BigOz are a great organic company, all there cereals are gluten free, nut free, GM free and dairy free. BigOz also support some thing called 'Project Le Monde' which helps underprivileged communities in Uganda, so you can feel good while eating your cereal. These buckwheat puffs taste nuttier (and better) then your average rice krispie and have 2.91g of protein per 30g serving which isn't bad for a cereal..

As you can see I've already got in and had a square of this chocolate bar and I can happily say it's wonderful. It's a raw, vegan organic bar of chocolate goodness with goji berries and vanilla. I don't really need to say any more..

 
 To the left is some smoked tofu. Again it's organic which is great and it's a slightly different make to what I normally buy. See, I often buy 'Dragonfly Organic Tofu' which is made locally in Devon but this tofu had less packaging, was cheaper and looked pretty good so I thought, why not? I normally grill my smoked tofu with a little soy sauce to really bring out the smokiness. I really want to try some different tofu products as tofu is really good for you, it's literally just a block of protein and fiber.

 This is the best Jam ever. Honestly.

 It's a high fruit jam and has no added sugar, instead it uses fruit juice concentrate to give it that jammy sweetness. This means its brilliant for diabetics, low GI diets and controlling the amount of refined sugar you intake. PLUS it tastes delicious. I've had these jams before  but never the black cherry one but its so darn good. In nearly every spoon full you get a whole juicy cherry and the jam really tastes of sweet lovely fruit rather then sugar, which I like. A lot.

Get this jam you will thank me.

I also bought (that isn't individually pictured) vegan cheddar cheese, white tea with goji berry and some cartons of strawberry coconut milk alternative, all of these I am exited to try. Below are some pictures of 'The Natural Apothecary Cafe'. The decor was beautiful, there were cushions with tea cups on them, floral wall paper, and quaint little details like a gramophone and miss-match light bulbs. Me and my dad shared a detox juice that contained broccoli, orange, pineapple, milk thistle, macca powder and few other things and a flowering green tea called 'flying snow'  that had coconut shreds in the flower. The Juice was actually really nice and refreshing and the after taste of the broccoli was surprisingly pleasant and went really well with the pineapple. And the tea! Well I think my self as a tea connoisseur and this tea was really wonderful. It was delicate and floral with a sweet coconut after taste and what made it even better was the fact you could see the flower opening up before your eyes. I will definitely be returning.

Emotional Baking and Sweet Vegan Hand Pies

When I am emotional I tend to bake.
It allows me too:
a) feel in control of something in my life
b) calms me and focus my mind on to something that isn't stressing me
c) create something positive (good food) that i can give to others to make them feel good, there by making me feel better.

In general my emotional baking sessions create something quite wonderful. Last night and this morning was one of those occasions. I made two different vegan hand pies, PBJ and Chunky monkey ones. These are cute, vaguely healthy compared to other pies and vegan. This was my first shot at vegan pastry and it's actually not that hard. I added a little peanut butter to my pastry mix to add not only extra taste to the crust but to enrich and help form the dough like extra butter or an egg would. I found this really worked and the added healthy fat helped the flakiness of the pastry.

Vegan PB Pastry

Ingrediants
225g of plain flour (to make healthier use half wholemeal half white, or your own flour combination)
100g of vegan baking fat (margarine/vegan butter)
2 tbsp of natural smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp of agave (or other liquid sweetener)
tsp of salt
Couple of tbsp of ice cold water

-Weigh out your margarine or vegan butter. Cut into little chunks and place in the freezer.
- Weigh out your flour and add the salt place it in a large mixing bowl in the fridge, it's important to get your ingredients as cold as possible with pastry.

-While the other ingredients are getting cold mix together you peanut butter and agave so the combine and make a thick gloop.
-Take your cold margarine or vegan butter and cut it into your cold flour. After the fat is cut into small chunks and coated in flour use cold hands or a pastry utensil rub the vegan baking fat into the flour till it resembles rough bread crumbs.

adding the beautiful PB

- Add the peanut butter mixture and cut into your flour bread crumbs. Then add your ice water gradually till your dough comes together into a ball. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge to rest till needed.

Todahhhhh

Vegan PBJ Hand Pies

Ingredients
Half your vegan pastry
1/2 cup of roughly diced strawberries
1/4 cup reduced sugar vegan strawberry jam
2-3 tbsp of natural peanut butter
1 tsp of cornstarch
3 tbsp of almond milk

- Mix together your strawberries, jam and flour.
- Take small balls of pastry (about the size of a ping pong ball) and roll out into disks on a floured bored
- Mentally divide the disk in half, on the upper half of the disk smear, liberally, with peanut butter leaving 1/2cm clear around the edge.

- Place a tsp of the strawberry mixture in the center of the upper half then fold the bottom half up to enclose the filling. Crimp the edges to seal and place on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper.
- Repeat until all the pastry is used up (6-8 pies) then with a sharp knife or fork prick wholes in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape. Then with a pasty brush lightly coat the pies with almond milk.

Babies pre-oven

- Place in a 180 degree oven for 10-15 minuets till the pastry is golden 

 Chunky Monkey Vegan Hand Pies

Ingredients
Half your vegan pastry
2 tsp of cocoa powder
2 tsp of agave (or other liquid sweeter)
3 tbsp of natural peanut butter
pinch of salt
1 banana

-  Mix together your cocoa powder, salt and agave to form a thick chocolate syrup. Fold in your peanut butter till fully combined. Slice your banana into half circles.

- Take small balls of pastry (about the size of a ping pong ball) and roll out into disks on a floured bored
- Mentally divide the disk in half, on the upper half of the disk smear, place a tsp of the chocolate peanut butter mixture and flatten with a knife leaving 1/2cm clear around the edge.

- Place 4 banana pieces on top of the chocolate peanut butter mixture then fold the bottom half up to enclose the filling. Crimp the edges to seal and place on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper.

- Repeat until all the pastry is used up (6-8 pies) then with a sharp knife or fork prick wholes in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape. Then with a pasty brush lightly coat the pies with almond milk. Place in a 180 degree oven for 10-15 minuets till the pastry is golden 

Voilaaaa

 

Sugar Free Jam

I love jam
I don't love the amount of sugar in it. In Hartley's Strawberry Jam there is 61g of sugar in 100g of Jam. Not to mention they add Gelling agent, Sodium Citrates and Glucose fructose syrup. That's less then 40% fruit in your fruit jam...
So for others who still want there sweet fruity jam but don't all that sugar, here is a sugar free jam that is more exiting then your bog standard strawberry.
The secret to thickening the fruit with out the gelling agent and sugar is chia seeds. This ancient seed dates back to Aztec times and they are full of the good stuff, Omega 3, dietary fiber, calcium, iron, protein, potassium not to mention loads of antioxidants. Seriously they are insanely good for you. The other awesome thing about chia seeds is that when they are submerged into a liquid they create a gel that thickens the liquid they are in. Boom we have an all natural, healthy gelling agent. Hozaaa jam time. 

Magical seeds

Mango, Apple, Pear and Ginger Chia Seed Jam,

Ingredients
Half a medium mango
1 pear
1 eating apple
1 tsp of minced ginger
1 lemon (un-waxed)
1 tbsp of Honey, or liquid sweetner (to taste)

1 tbsp of sweetener (to taste)
3 tbsp of water (ish)
2 tbsp of Chia Seeds

- Roughly dice mango, apple and pear and put in a medium heavy bottomed pan. Add ginger, honey and sweetener. Get your lemon and with a peeler, peal 3 strips of peal and add to pot. Slice open your lemon and add a tbsp of the juice.
- Add your 3 tbsp of water and turn the heat on. You may need to add less or more water depending on how juicy your fruit is.
 -Stir your fruit mixture over a medium heat until all the fruit has broken down.  Then remove from heat and take out the lemon peal. I didn't wait for it to cool before a blitzed it (cause i live my life on the edge) but if you don't like hot fruit puree in your eye leave to cool then blitz.
-Taste, this is your change to add more sweetener/ginger/acidity. Each jam at this stage will be slightly different as fruits vary in sweetness and acidity as they ripen so taste and change if need be.
-Place pureed mixture back on a low heat and had your chia seeds stir for about a minuet and remove from heat. Leave to cool and but in tubs. This mixture keeps for about 1/2 weeks in the fridge.

I put them in little tubs.. They're so cute, like little baby jams