Homemade snack bar

Sometimes I really like to have a snack bar with me, if I know that I'm going to need great fuel for exercise later in the day, or if I need some extra fibers or food during the day. As I think it is very expensive to buy such bars and that it can be difficult here in Denmark, to find bars without excess sugar, I make my own.

Today I made oat and date bars with hazelnut, cacao nibs, flax seed and vanilla.

Oat bars (12 bars/servings)

16 fresh, pitted dates

100 g oats

2 tbsp flax seed

3 tbsp raw cacao nibs

100 g hazelnut butter

4 tsp coconut oil

Pinch of pure vanilla powder

Blend dates into a coarse paste. Mix with remaining ingredients. Shape into bars and put in the oven at 150 degrees for 10 minutes if desired, followed by putting them in the freezer. Otherwise just pop in the freezer. Wrap in cling film and store in fridge. 

The nutritional info on each bar is: 

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe   12 Servings Amount Per Serving   Calories 141.1   Total Fat 9.0 g       Saturated Fat 2.8 g       Polyunsaturated Fat 1.4 g       Monounsaturated Fat 4.2 g   Cholesterol 0.0 mg   Sodium 1.1 mg   Potassium 178.6 mg   Total Carbohydrate 16.8 g       Dietary Fiber 3.3 g       Sugars 7.5 g   Protein 2.8 g   Vitamin A 0.1 %   Vitamin B-12 0.0 %   Vitamin B-6 3.8 %   Vitamin C 0.9 %   Vitamin D 0.0 %   Vitamin E 6.7 %   Calcium 2.2 %   Copper 10.9 %   Folate 4.0 %   Iron 5.7 %   Magnesium 8.3 %   Manganese 47.7 %   Niacin 1.9 %   Pantothenic Acid     2.5 %   Phosphorus     7.5 %   Riboflavin 1.7 %   Selenium 0.8 %   Thiamin 8.2 %   Zinc 3.8 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Calculated at http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp

No-bake cold cashew-chocolate-cookies

I just made one of my favourite sweet things: cashew-chocolate-cookies!

They might not look that amazing but trust me - they are! This is one of those recipes where you just mix things until you think it tastes good, therefore there aren't any real measurements, but don't let that frighten you! 

First you make chocolate chips my mixing heated coconut oil, raw (or regular) cacao powder, agave nectar and pure vanilla powder. Pour the mixture in a tray lined with a baking sheet, and pop in the freezer for 15 minutes. If it isn't solid yet, leave it a bit longer. Cut up into chips and use. 

While the chocolate mixture sets in the freezer, make the dough. Grind cashew nuts in a blender (i use 2 big handfuls), adding coconut oil, vanilla powder, agave syrup and oats when the nuts are completely ground to cashew meal. I tend to add 2-3 big tbsp of oats, 2 tbsp of coconut oil, 2-3 tbsp agave and 1/8 tsp vanilla powder, but as I said just play around with it. Blend some more, until you have a cookie dough texture. Add more of anything needed - make sure to taste it! Mix the chocolate chips into the dough and form into cookies or balls. Pop in the freezer again for 15-20 minutes and eat :-)

This is so easy, and kids can definitely join you in the kitchen! 

Heavenly breakfast

Today I decided that I wasn't in the mood for smoothie or vegetables, but not for something warm either. I searched my cupboards and ended up with this bowl!

It had banana, gojiberries, frozen blueberries, chopped almonds, raw chocolate nibs and topped with a bit of hazelnut butter (my current favourite).

I topped it with homemade vanilla almond milk and went outside in the sun to eat - yummy!

For my love of food

I love food! And not just in that I like to eat it, no I LOVE FOOD! I love to eat it, cook it, talk about it, read about it, watch movies about it, I love to shop, taste, feel and smell food. I would say that around 20 percent of my daily thoughts work around food in some way or another, if not more. And I love all kinds of different food! I have one requirement though. To truly love it, it has to be homemade, wholesome and taste incredible. I am fascinated my chefs like Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver, to see the passion they put into food. And even more by Jamie than by Nigella, as I tend to think that Nigella actually sometimes uses too much pre-packaged stuff. Of Danish chefs I have a profound respect for Nikolaj Kirk and Oscar Umahro Cadogan. I have a passion for food that few people understand, and I must admit that I can bore people to death with my talk of the latest recipe I cooked :-)

I like to discover new food and I like to eat what my body tells me to eat. Because even though I like almost every kind of food, and practically can get an orgasm from eating a really rich chocolate mousse cake, I also believe that my body should have the best conditions possible to live under. Therefore, I would say that I eat really healthy 80 percent of the time, and when I indulge in my last 20 percent, it's with organic, wholesome, homemade, and sometimes also quite healthy, food. Yes I sometimes end up at McDonalds. Sometimes meaning like once a year. I am by no means a fanatic about what I eat, and I would never ever compromise taste for healthy eating! I just find things I enjoy just as much as the "unhealthy" stuff.

When I put unhealthy in citation marks, it is because I have one problem with the entire health movement. And that is how most articles, interviews, TV-programmes etc. tend to leave out the most important thing, which is the quality of the life you live! If I were to live a life where I was constantly watching what I was eating, never allowing myself the things that are perhaps not good to my body but for my mind and soul, I would be miserable. That is why I bake cakes and blend up amazing chocolate drinks. Yes I do choose to bake some of my cakes with dates instead of sugar, I make raw chocolate with raw agave nectar instead of indulging in regular chocolate everyday. But I do by no means feel deprived, since I try to have my focus on what I do love to eat, which doesn't fuck up my body. So even though something might be unhealthy for your body in medical terms, it can for sure be so very healthy for you and your mind.

Too much sugar fuck up my body AND mind. That is whether it is too many dates, too much processed white sugar or too much agave nectar. And I know, that in order to feel my best, I need to find a way in which I can feel maximum happiness, and that doesn't include too much sugar. But when it's my birthday, I whip up cakes resembling those from La Glace and enjoy every minute of it. I hope that you will follow my adventures in cooking up both these parts of my life!

Apple snack

One of my favourite snacks at all times (when I'm not craving chocolate or salted nuts) is lemon apples. They are so easy to make, tastes amazing and keep for two-three days in the fridge. The sour and yet flavourful lemon along with the sweet and crisp apple is perfect for snacking on throughout the day.

Lemon apples

1 (organic) apple

½ (organic) lemon

Zest the lemon and put zest and juice in a bowl. Cut up the apple into very thin pieces. Mix everything thoroughly, cover the bowl and leave in the fridge for an hour marinating. You can however eat them straight away if you want to. Either drain apples from the leftover lemon juice, or simply leave it all together, depending on how sour you like the outside of the apples to be. Eat and enjoy!

You can mix a bit of pure vanilla powder in the lemon juice for an even more candy-like taste. 

Healthy chocolate drink

Yesterday evening I had a craving for chocolate, but since I try to avoid processed sugar most days (except for when I just HAVE to bake a cake and eat it too), I had to come up with a way of satisfying this craving in a healthy way. Throughout the last couple of years I've been indulging in the most amazing and yet very simple chocolate drink, that tastes absolutely wonderful!

Pillowy chocolate drink

1 banana

2 tsp hazelnut butter

100-150 ml very cold water

A couple of tbsp raw chocolate powder (regular might work)

A pinch of pure vanilla powder

Blend everything on high speed until mixed thoroughly. If you think it is too thin, then try using almond milk, rice milk or simply regular milk.

Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred

I just completed a level of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD - find it here - and feel soooo good! I love her tough attitude (and her abs)

I believe that exercise should be fun, but I also know that sometimes it just gotta hurt! And that's what I can accomplish with Jillian.