Healthy vegan version of rice pudding (Coconut, Cinnamon and Date Bulgar and Quinoa pudding)

As a kid rice pudding was the most comforting thing. We didn't have it often and it wasn't always home made but it was still the BEST THING EVER to me. I mean it was creamy sweet cabs, what more do you want at the age of 5? However, rice pudding is really not healthy, unless you count the health benefits from the raisins you sometimes get in it. SO I have been looking for a healthy substitute to satisfy my inner child. Finally I found it and its super creamy (without dairy), tasty (with out refined carbohydrates) and packed with protein (with out sticking a steak in the middle of your dessert). Its my Coconut, Cinnamon and Date Bulgar and Quinoa pudding. The Bulgar and Quinoa mix I bought from Waitrose and is great as it's high protein, unrefined fiber filled goodness but you could replace it with straight Quinoa or any other protein rich whole grain you like.

Coconut, Cinnamon and Date Bulgar and Quinoa pudding

Ingredients
1/2 cup  Bulgar wheat and Quinoa mix (uncooked)
1/2 cup Coconut milk light
10 dates
2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tbsp of favorite sweetener (I used stevia)
1 tbsp of dessicated coconut unsweetened




*optional- toppings such as raisins, Goji berries, nuts and seeds 

-Put a small pan of water over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Add your Bulgar and Quinoa and cook for 10 mins. If your using another grain cook in the water till a few minuets before fully cooked (it will finish cooking in the coconut milk)

Dates and Coconut Milk ready for the pan!

- Drain your grains and return to pan. Add the coconut milk, dates, sweetener and cinnamon. Stir till the grains are fully cooked (about a further 2-3 mins), remove from heat and stir in your dessicated coconut.

- Serve up and add your toppings (I topped with Goji berries, raisins, chopped figs and Brazil nuts)

Comfort food at it's healthy best

Date Caramel Cashew Thumbprint Cookies with Cacao Nibs

 Hello world, so I have finally taken the jump and told the parents I've gone VEGAN so I am now officially vegan, I guess. I know it's not much but it's a start! So to celebrate I wanted to make something I have wanted to make for a while.. Date caramel. I have never been a chocolate fanatic, I mean it's nice but I can live with out it. No, what I adore it caramel and fudgey things, so to hear you could have a healthy caramel was mind blowing. I have been afraid to make it cause my blender is awful and extremely noise but it succeeded so it i can make it with 90's blender so can you! These are full of protein so get em' down your gullet and get some guns to rival Popeye's! Or just for good skin and hair, what ever, big cartoon muscle arms are cool but ya know, your life. Anyway here are my...

Date Caramel Cashew Thumbprint Cookies

I am genuinely so so so so so proud of these.. like so proud.

Date Caramel 

Ingredients 

7 dates

3 prunes

1 tbsp of raisins

1 tsp vanilla bean seeds / 2 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

-Soak you dates, prunes and raisin in 5 tbsp of water for about half an hour

- Reserve a tbsp of the soaking liquor (for the cookies) then add the rest to the blender along with the salt and vanilla and blitz till smooth

Cashew Cookie

Ingredients 

1/2 cup of raw cashews

1/4 cup oats

tbsp of plain (or vanilla) protein powder (mine's vegan but its not certificated raw, you can however get raw certificated protein powder online to make this 'fully raw')

1 tsp vanilla bean seeds / 2 tsp vanilla extract

4 dates

2 tsp of granulated sweetener of choice (stevia, coconut palm sugar etc)

1 tbsp of agave

1 tbsp of date caramel soaking liquid

 Pinch of salt

1 tbsp of cacao nibs (optional)

- If you have a stubborn blender, like mine, roughly chop up your dates and nuts. Then throw into your blender with the rest of your ingredients (apart from your agave and soaking liquid).

Ingredients going into the noisiest blender ever

- Blitz in till the nuts and oats have been fully ground down and are starting to clump together into a dough, then add your agave and soaking liquid to help it along and blitz till a dough does form.

- Remove from blender and stir in your cacao nibs (you could use vegan chocolate chips also which would be sweeter but not as healthy and full of antioxidants as cacao nibs, plus I like the crunch you get from the nibs)

- Roll in to balls the size of a large marble the flatten and make a dimple in the center of the cookie (for the caramel)

Ready for the caramel!

- Fill the dimple with the caramel and serve!

KEEP CALM AND MAKE THESE

Just a quickie

Just discovered a new wonderment

Dates stuffed with nut butter

do it


you'll thank me

Beans for tea

Asked to cook dinner;
Sure, that's cool
what's in the cupboard
(looks in the cupboard, nothing but beans)

beans it is then.

I am sure this occasion has happened to many, the attempt at constructing a tasty meal out of beans. Although beans on toast it a great breakfast staple its not exactly the most gastronomic of dishes eh? However although not always celebrated fine dining the humble bean is a health bundle of joy, staying true to the rhyme 'beans, beans good for your heart the more you eat them the more you..'. Beans are full of fiber and protein keeping you full, controlling blood sugar levels and helping you build and repair muscle. So here is a recipe up your sleeve that is nutritious, cheap and is basically made completely out of your cupboard staples. 

Smokey bean stew and home made seed and herb flat breads with cool garlic, mint and coriander dip (all vegan)

 Flat breads

Ingrediants
150g seeded bread flour
50g whole meal flour
50g corn meal
3 tbsp of favourite oil ( garlic or herb infused oils will work nicely too)
140 ml warm water
1 tbsp of agave
1 tsp of salt
7g of yeast

-Mix water and agave together, add yeast and set aside to ferment for 10 mins.
- Meanwhile mix together flours and cornmeal in a big bowl. If you don't have all these flour you can just make up 250g worth of any bread flour combination. Add salt to one side of the bowl and the water/yeast and oil to the other. using your hands bring together to a dough and knead till smooth and elastic.

- Leave in a covered oiled bowl for an hour in a warm place to rise. Then knock the air out of it and knead again break in to golf ball sized balls.
- Roll out the balls into very flat circula disks. Brush with oil and cook on a hot plate or large flat frying pan. Season with salt and pepper.

Smokey Bean stew

Ingredients
1 large carrot
1 large stick of celery
1 large onion
1 green bell pepper
2 cloves of garlic
8 button mushrooms
1 can of baked beans
1/2 can of mixed beans
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup of stock
1 heaped  tbsp of smoked paprika
1 heaped tbsp of favorite Mexican spice blend
2 tsp of mustard
1 tbsp of dark agave/treacle
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of tomato purree

- Dice your carrot, celery, onion, garlic and bell pepper. Add to a large pan with a little oil. Saute for 10 mins till the vegetables are browning ever so slightly on the edges. Add the tomato puree and saute for 5 mins adding the spices 1-2 mins before the end. de-glaze with the stock.

pouring shot.

- Add your agave/treacle, soy sauce, mustard and tomatoes and let the mixture reduce till its the consistency of tomato ketchup.
- Slice your mushrooms and add to the pan along with the beans. Cover and cook till the beans are soft and the mushrooms are cooked through. Serve when ready, you can have this stew sitting on the stove all day it only gets better.

Cool garlic, mint and coriander Dip

Ingredients
1 cup vegan plain yogurt
hand full of mint
hand full of coriander
half a clove of garlic
pinch of coarse salt

-In a pestle and mortar add garlic, salt, and some of the mint and coriander (reserving some for garnish later).

- Grind till a thick paste is formed. Add the vegan yogurt and combine.
- Tear up the the rest of the herbs and stir through or place on top to garnish the dip.

All together! Hozaa amigos, enjoy your beans

Special Vegan Almond Cups with the Boy

 Been living with the boyfriend this week so it's taken me a while to get round to posting this but It's worth it, trust. Plus, I got a sue chef whilst making this awesome recipe..

The beau spooning out the vegan chocolate

Vegan Almond Butter, Banana, Maple cinnamon cups!

Ok every one loves (or should love) the classic Reeses combination of salty nutty peanut butter and sweet chocolate and I've seen a lot of home made and healthier versions around the food blog community. However, I wanted create something slightly special that wasn't just vegan chocolate and almond butter. So I added banana, raisins, cinnamon, and maple cinnamon contributing not just extra fucking fab-u-lous taste but extra fiber, potassium and slow releasing energy. Plus a fun little fact for you, bananas have levels of tryptophan, which is converted into serotonin -- the happy-mood brain neurotransmitter. There for bananas are believed to help with low moods and depression.

SO if your down make these you get chocolate and depression boosting tryptophan. Win win.

Special Vegan Almond Cups

Ingrediants
Bar of vegan chocolate
1/2 cup of almond butter
1 ripe banana
2 tbps of maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
hand full of raisins
large pinch of salt

The almond butter and chocolate I like to use

- Melt your chocolate over a double boiler or in a microwave (10 secs at a time)
- Line small cyclicone moulds or mini cup cake cases with the chocolate, smoothing it up the sides t
so it creates 'cups'. I used heart shaped moulds, cause I'm just that cute, and cup cake ones. Cover and leave in the fridge in set

- Mash your banana and fold into the almond butter along with the maple syrup, cinnamon, raisins and salt

- When the chocolate is set remove from molds and fill with nut butter mixture. decorate with sea salt crystals or flakes of vegan chocolate.

VOILAAA

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

 

Raw Slaw and Goji Berries

Hellooooooooooooooo! As my friend Fi has kindly informed me that she was disappointed in me that Healthy Hungry Hippos hadn't been updated in a while I thought I better clean up my act and cook and blog with all my heart.

Recently I bought some goji berries. I LOVE these things and i used make 'power detox juice' by steeping a hand full of goji berries in green tea with some lemon then letting it cool and transferring to my water bottle of the day. It was Antioxidant central! However, I wanted to investigate them in a savory dish like you would put raisins in a carrot and rice salad to add a sweet sharp note. So I look in the fridge and we have a shit load of crunchy vegetables, white cabbage, carrots, bok choi and onion.. SLAW TIME! This slaw has an eastern inspiration, so no heavy fatty creamy dressing just a light tangy and slightly spicy flavor. Perfect side dish or with the satay drizzle a nice summer lunch or dinner.

So here is my Raw Slaw with Goji berries and Cashews with a Satay Drizzle, I hope you like..

Raw Slaw with Goji berries and Cashews

Ingredients

Slaw
2 cups shredded white cabbage
1 large celery stick
1 small bok choi
1 small red onion
2 small carrots
10 dwarf beans
hand full of corriander
hand full of raw cashews
handfull of goji berries

Dressing
3 tbsp of grapefruit juice
1 lime
1 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of rice wine vinager
1 tsp of agave
2 tsp of grated ginger
1/2 tsp of grated garlic
2 tsp of your favourite dried curry spice mix
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of corriander
1 chilli
pinch of cayenne powder



-In the bottom of a large salad bowl combine all dressing ingrediants apart from the chill. Score the chill with a knife and add to the bowl. This will allow the taste and some mild heat to be added to the slaw with out it becoming chilli central.

- Chop into thin batons the celery, onion and bok choi. Add to the bowl along with the shredded cabbage. Throughly mix coating it thoroughly in the dressing. Leave in the fridge for 30-40 mins to brine.

-Meanwhile peel and chop your carrots and dwarf beans into battons and roughly chop your corriander.

- When the slaw has finished its time in the fridge add your carrots, coriander, cashews and goji berries.

Violaaaa! RAW SLAW!

Satay Drizzle  

Ingredients
1/4 peanutbutter
1/4 cup water
1/4 grapefruit juice
1 tsp of rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp of maple syrup
2 tsp of grated ginger
2 tsp of your favorite curry spice mix
pinch of salt

- Combine all ingredients till smooth drizzle is made
- Assemble!

I made it in the peanut butter jar, anything to avoid washing up

Its like a healthy rainbow!