Dairy free dark mint chocolate chunk cookies

Before I had never really thought about vegan/dairy free baking as something that I would seriously be interested in doing, but after making some brownies and and then these cookies on Monday and them turning out so yummy and perfect, now it seems like the perfect way to go. I love how they were so quick & easy to make and are just like cookies should be, a lovely golden colour-hardened around the outside and soft and gooey on the inside.

I'm not sure if I've ever made many traditional cookies before but I don't think I have any need to after discovering these, and the best thing is they are both free of dairy products and refined sugars, which are both things I try to avoid. In this recipe I used coconut palm sugar which is both natural and unrefined with a lovely caramel taste that doesn't leave you feeling yucky afterwards. Brilliant for health freaks like me. So for this recipe and for the majority of recipes I will be doing in the future, I will be using coconut palm sugar. Ahh, just saying the name of it makes my heart flutter. If I could eat the whole jar to myself I probably would because I love it that much. If you don't have or want to use coconut sugar you can just stick with caster as it wouldn't make that much of a difference to the recipe.

If you find yourself craving something sweet and chocolatey on an evening thats also ridiculously good for you, these cookies would be perfect with my warming hot chocolate with 100% natural ingredients.

PRINT THIS RECIPE

Makes 6 large cookies

Ingredients: 

125g vegan butter
125g coconut palm sugar
250g plain white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp peppermint extract
50g dark baking or normal chocolate cut into chunks (I use Green & Blacks)

To Make:

1. Cream the butter and coco sugar with the back of your spoon in a large bowl until fluffy, then add and stir in the peppermint extract to your preferred mintiness. 
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder then add the flour to the creamed butter until a soft dough is formed. 
3. Once you have your dough, make it into a log shape and wrap it in cling film ready to go in the fridge. I would recommend keeping it in the fridge for at least an hour and if you can, overnight. I kept mine in overnight just to be safer! 
4. A few hours later, or the next day, take your dough out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Grease a baking tray with butter and cut out some baking parchment to fit. 
5. Then taking a knife, equally divide and mark six lines on the dough before rolling into neat balls and pressing them down on your baking tray. Make sure there is plenty of space between each one as they will expand in the oven. Depending on your personal preference, you can make six large cookies or twelve smaller ones.
6. Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes. It will be pretty easy to know when they're ready, just remember to make sure they are all cooked through properly. Also keep in mind that they will cool down and harden quickly when they're out. Once they're all cool, transfer to a wire cooling rack or plate. 

Enjoy!

Emily X

Review: CoYo Coconut Milk Yoghurt-Natural and Raw Chocolate

Left-Raw Chocolate Right-Natural (250ml)

A few months ago these yoghurts had been popping up all over my instagram timeline and I was incredibly curious to know what all the fuss was about, so I ordered one of the 250ml natural yoghurts to try and couldn't believe how good it tasted. This time I also ordered a raw chocolate 250ml tub to try too and wasn't disappointed. The brand also does other flavours such as morello cherry, mango, vanilla and mixed berry. CoYo coconut milk yoghurts are all free of dairy, soya, lactose, and gluten with no added sugar which would be perfect for a large variety of people, those of which who are vegetarian, vegan, health conscious, lactose and gluten intolerant. Or it could be for those who simply just love coconut! Even if you don't fit in any of the above, I'm sure you would agree that they are as they say on the tub "Heaven in a mouthful".

The yoghurt is really nice and creamy and has a lovely light and refreshing taste that I really like. It also goes with a lot of things so it doesn't necessarily have to be just eaten on its own. I enjoy having it with my homemade banana bread and later on in the week will be serving some with some chocolate buckwheat pancakes, yay! Anything like that goes really well together in my opinion. Another positive is that because its coconut, you don't need too much in one go either, making it last longer. For one to two people one tub would probably last all week, well just! The price for a 250ml tub is really good at only £3.55 for the raw chocolate and £2.99 for the natural. The tub is also has a really clean and fresh look which is very simple but still gets the message across. As you can tell I just really love this company, and I don't think there are really any bad points. CoYo is always one of my first choices now for dairy free yoghurts as in terms of nutrition, they have everything I look out for.

Emily X

Superfood Sunday: Maca

As you may have read in one of my previous posts, every few weeks I wanted to start blogging about my favourite super foods, and the health benefits they all offer. I feel it is very important that people know about them as some are not even aware they exist! They have all helped me massively in my health journey in the past year and I believe they will help lots of other people too.

Just like cacao, maca is one of those super foods that I've been using and enjoying for months now. It is one of my favourites and always leaves me with a fresh sense of life and energy. It has a caramel flavour which is really handy as it can be incorporated into various dishes creating lots of different combinations and flavours! Because of my condition I can get very tired quite easily and often so for me maca is always the perfect solution to keep me going all day long. I love to have it in smoothies and my oats on a morning and my favourite brands are Organic Burst and Naturya. To try my banana and almond butter smoothie with OB Maca click here :)

Maca powder is also known as Peruvian Ginseng and has been used in Peru for endurance, energy, and hormonal balance for over 2000 years. It most commonly is found in powder form and you can find it in your local health shop or online.

There are various health benefits which include:

• A strengthened body and stamina
• Healthy energy levels, as it acts as a caffeine free energiser (now you have a worthy excuse to ditch the coffee on a morning to wake you up!)
• Better sexual health and balance in hormones

Maca is a great investment and I promise you that you won't regret it! 

Emily X

Why I decided to become a vegan

As you may already know either from knowing me personally or from in the about me section, I have been a vegetarian ever since I was born and have loved being one my whole life. But since greatly changing my eating habits this year, I have had the desire to become a vegan. Thanks to the many talented and beautiful people I follow on Instagram for healthy food inspiration who were doing the exact same thing I aspired to do, I realised that it really was possible, and opened myself up to a new world full of possibilities. Part of me is thinking oh no, what have I got myself into? But the other can't help but be excited for the adventure ahead.

I had thought about it a lot and even spoke with my mum about it (as she has recently gone vegan too) but we both came to the conclusion that I should just eat dairy only occasionally like I had been doing-the odd goats cheese in my tea & scrambled eggs with veggie bacon for breakfast (except for dairy milk which is something I haven't been drinking for over a year.) And I also had to take into consideration my baking which uses non vegan ingredients such as milk, cream, and eggs and if you like to bake too you will know the temptations that come with baking and resisting the urge to lick the spoon! And of course we can't forget the time when our creations come out of the oven and not being able to eat and try what has just been made.

But then after a couple of weeks of just continuing the of way I was I simply wasn't satisfied with where I was at, and although it suited me for a while, I felt I could do much better! So I made the  courageous decision to dive into unknown waters, and take a BIG step out of my comfort zone. I understand that eating a vegan diet and living a vegan lifestyle can and will be a little tricky and inconvenient sometimes, but I'm willing to go through with it as I believe it is worth it. Although one of the main reasons for my becoming vegan was my overall health and my skin, the other is about the animals. My whole family (well, mostly me, my mum, and my younger sister Isobel) feel very strongly about the way animals are treated in farming and food industries in today's society. As a Christian I believe God created animals to be loved, cherished, and cared for. Not brutally murdered and treated the disgusting way they are as if they have no worth and value. The gift of compassion in my opinion is not only to be shown to humans, but extended to every living creature on this earth, because like us, they have a spirit and are beautifully and wonderfully made.

When I was younger I was also well aware of all that goes in within the meat and dairy industry, but often tried to turn a blind eye to it because it meant having to face up to the cruel and harsh reality of the way the world is and I wasn't ready for that yet. But now I am much older I have been able to fully understand the truth of it all and come to make my own decisions about the way I live and eat.
Because this is a very controversial topic I think lots of people often lack the courage to speak out and share their views and opinions and be honest about whats really happening in the food industry in fear of offending. But how can we ever bring change if we don't do something about it? People won't ever know whats really going on if you don't tell them.

Plus, how could you ever want to hurt these little fellas? :)

If you want to know more about the subject, I strongly recommend watching Earthlings. Earthlings is a documentary film about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment, and medical research. I had tears in my eyes the whole way through this and for the majority of the film I was just sat watching the screen with my jaw wide open out of sheer shock, anger, and despair. It is very hard to watch but I think it is important that we know what is going on behind closed doors. You can watch the full documentary for free on YouTube, just follow the link here :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4DJh-L7Ys


I love the quote below from William Wilberforce.

"You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know."

Creamy chocolate coconut oats

In honour of National Porridge Day, I decided to share one of my all time favourite recipes. This is one of the first things that I learned to make and is one of my favourite things to have on a morning for breakfast. Not only is it chocolate, but it is so tasty and fulfilling and always sets me up to have a great day. Oats are brilliant because they are good for your heart and release their energy slowly and keep you fuller for longer, meaning you wont be snacking in between meals.

For this recipe I haven't used normal chocolate/cocoa powder, I used raw cacao powder which is cocoa in its purest/natural form. But normal cocoa will do just fine if you don't have cacao. Find out more about cacao here :)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup almond milk or any nut milk of your choice

1/2 cup porridge oats (I like flavahans)

1 tbsp. coconut oil

1 tbsp. ground flaxseed

1 tsp Organic Burst maca powder

1 mashed banana

2-3 tbsp. raw cacao powder

Your favourite toppings

To Make:

1. Pour the almond milk and porridge oats into a small saucepan and add the coconut oil, flaxseed, maca, banana and cacao, mix altogether and leave to soak.
2. Turn the oven on to 160 degrees and heat the pan up on a medium heat and mix with a wooden spoon until the oats are heated through.
3. Pour the oats into your favourite bowl and put in the oven to bake for 5 minutes.
4. After 5 minutes take out of the oven and add your favourite fruits and toppings. I love to add berries, desiccated coconut, almonds, coconut sugar and cocao nibs.

Enjoy!

Emily X 

Banana and almond butter smoothie with Organic Burst maca

This is one of my all time favourite smoothies and I have really enjoyed making this in the past year. Its quick to make and can be enjoyed any time of the day. I love it in the afternoons when I need something to keep me going until tea time. This smoothie is perfect for the days when you need a great natural energy boost, and is something great to fill you until your next meal. The banana is a great source of potassium and the almonds in the almond butter are a highly alkaline food to keep your body's PH balanced. If you want you can also add a few whole almonds which I sometimes like to do, but that bit is optional. :)

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 large Banana
1 cup of Almond milk
1 tbsp Almond butter
1 tsp Organic Burst maca powder (http://www.organicburst.com)
1 tbsp Coconut palm sugar

To Make:

1. Break or slice the banana and place in a blender. I use my Nutribullet to make this smoothie-the Nutribullet is a great option when you're wanting to live a healthier lifestyle on a budget as it does a large amount of things for the price it costs and comes with both an extracter blade to blend and a milling blade to mill nuts etc. Here is the link to the website (https://www.nutribullet.com) 
2. Next, add the almond milk, the 1 cup is just an estimation to what I use but you can use more or less depending on how thick you want your smoothie to be. Then add in the maca, almond butter, coconut sugar and blend! 
3. To finish off, sprinkle a little coconut sugar on top and you're done! This step is optional but I think its that little bit nicer with some on top. Coconut sugar has a lovely mild caramel taste that compliments the maca and banana perfectly and is a brilliant alternative to refined sugar as it has a lower GI and is also rich in minerals. 

Enjoy!

Emily X

A New Year, A New Adventure

So, last night we welcomed in 2015.  If I could sum up 2014 in a few words it just couldn't be done, because there are numerous words that I could use to describe it. This year has taught me so many things, good and bad, but in the right ways lessons should be learnt. I learned the worthy and valuable lessons that time can teach us. That time can heal, time can restore and make things new, and last but not least, time is not to be wasted doing things that make us unhappy, but rather to be used to build, plant, and bring us joy. Filled with things that we LOVE doing.

It without a doubt has been life changing. So many horrible and traumatic, yet wonderful and spectacular things have happened. Through falling ill and my recovery, I found my passion and the thing I desire to do for the rest of my life. I am now filled with a fresh hope a new vision; and have been given a reason to jump out of bed in the morning!

Every year before this one has been challenging in its own ways but this one has made me more determined to do well despite being unwell and make myself and God proud. And so the very thing that I thought had ended my story, was in actual fact the beginning. I have now fully learned to be myself and have discovered a beautiful sense of freedom that I have never experienced before.

2014 has certainly been an adventure to say the least, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Have a blessed 2015! I hope its an amazing one :)

Emily X