Coconut Superfood Porridge

coconut-superfood-porridge

My poor bubba isn’t feeling too well today and has gone off his food. We do a superfood smoothie every morning but thought I’d try and give him something warmer to see if he liked it and although porridge is a funny old texture, especially if you’re not feeling well, he really enjoyed it.

I just shoved a load of superfoods in there to help his immune system (and mine), and I also heated the blueberries a bit so they were warm and squidgy, and for someone who isn’t the biggest porridge fan, I was pleasantly surprised!

Ingredients

1/3 cup organic rolled oats
2/3 cup purified water
5-6 tbsp almond milk
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 banana, sliced
1 tbsp almond or hazelnut butter
Desiccated coconut
Hemp powder
Maca powder
Handful blueberries
Pumpkin seeds
Acacia honey or maple (optional)

Method

Add the oats, water, almond milk, coconut oil and half the sliced banana to a saucepan and heat gently, until it goes creamy.

At the same time, put the blueberries in a small saucepan with a tablespoon or two of water and heat gently.

Back to the oats; add the nut butter and stir until it is incorporated.

Once ready, after around 5-7 mins, transfer to a bowl.

Top with the rest of the banana, spoonful of maca, spoonful of hemp, sprinkling of pumpkin seeds, sprinkling of desiccated coconut and the blueberries and if you like it sweet, drizzle some maple or honey over the top.

Love & health,
Lauren

 

Summer Berry Smoothie

summer-berry-smoothie

This is basically the same as the summer berry smoothie bowl but this is more of a smoothie than an ice cream. It is our go-to breakfast most mornings, for me and Braxton, I just spoon-feed it to him. When there are no berries we just use banana and the other ingredients and it’s a great way of getting daily superfoods into us.

The Autumn is about to start so trying to get as many berries in while I can!

Ingredients

250ml almond milk (or oat, rice or coconut milk)
1 banana
Handful strawberries
Handful blueberries
1 banana
Handful redcurrants or any other summer berries you have
2 dates
1 tbsp almond butter
1 tsp acai berry powder
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp flax seeds
1 tsp hemp powder
2 ice cubes

Method

Blend all ingredients in the blender and pour into a cup – literally easier than making toast!

Love & health,
Lauren

Vegan Buckwheat Pancakes

Buckwheat Maca Pancakes

Sunday mornings should really be all about pancakes, and my baby boy deserves the best! Such a great baby-led weaning food as it’s so easy for them to hold and feed themselves. This recipe uses only healthy, natural ingredients so it’s still full of nutrients, especially as I added a load of maca powder in there.

Braxton absolutely devoured these – and Daniel and I had no problem polishing them off!

I topped it with some almond butter and homemade chocolate sauce but you can use anything you like.

 

Ingredients

2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 2 tbsp water)
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
1.5 ripe bananas
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 cup almond milk (or any other non-dairy milk)
Coconut oil for cooking

Method

Make the flax eggs by mixing the flax seed with water in a small bowl and leaving it to the side.

Add all the ingredients to a food processor and wizz until smooth.

Heat some coconut oil in a pan and when hot, add a small ladle full of the mixture in a pancake shape. It will only need about a minute, then flip it and do another minute, or until you think it’s cooked through.

Continue until the mixture is finished.

 

Top with almond butter, homemade chocolate sauce or maple syrup (or all 3!)

Love & health,
Lauren

Summer Berry Smoothie Bowl

Summer berry smoothie bowl

The never-ending battle of making breakfasts interesting and fun yet healthy and nutritious for our little ones! Braxton loves smoothies and that is his breakfast most morning but in the summer we can cool it down even more with a delicious, creamy smoothie bowl. There are so many amazing berries available at the moment and berries are excellent anti-oxidants so these were thrown right into our smoothie bowl!

You can really pack these with superfoods to ensure you are getting the best possible amount of nutrients into your kids at the start of the day. I always put acai berry powder in my smoothies as it’s such an incredible anti-oxidant so is great for the immune system, and chia seeds as they are pure protein and the best time of the day to have protein is the morning. Then I decide which out of the following I want to include also: flax seeds, lucuma powder, maca powder, bee pollen, baobab powder, hemp seeds. If you have all these superfoods stocked in your pantry, you will be ensuring your family a great start to each day.

By the way, smoothie bowls are more like ice cream and smoothies are just smoothies.

Ingredients

2 frozen bananas (cut them in slices and set them on a plate to freeze, at least the night before)
Handful frozen blueberries
5 frozen strawberries
Handful redcurrants
Handful damsons or elderberries
Dash of almond milk (or oat, rice or coconut milk)
3 dates
1 tbsp almond butter
1 tsp acai berry powder
1 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp hemp seeds

Optional toppings:
Strawberries
Blueberries
Redcurrants
Damsons
Desiccated coconut
Chai seeds
Cherries – stones removed

Method

Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend until an ice cream-like consistency forms and finish with your choice of toppings.

Brax eating smoothie bowl This is how much Brax loved his smoothie bowl!

Love & health,
Lauren & Braxton

Vitamin Packed Berry Smoothie Bowl

Berry Smoothie Bowl

Ice cream for breakfast?? Who says you can’t be healthy and have fun! Smoothie bowls are one of my favourite breakfasts. You can literally put anything you want in or on them and you can pack them with vitamins and nutrients which is what I’ve done here. Once again, vitamins C & K and antioxidants are what I’m looking to increase right now as well as omega 3, as I approach the last few weeks of pregnancy, so I took this all into account by using blueberries (vitamins c and antioxidants), mulberries (vitamin k), acai berries (antioxidants) and flax seeds (omega 3), when making this simple, quick, delicious breakfast.

Ingredients

1 frozen banana
A large handful of frozen blueberries
2 dates
1 tbsp almond butter
2 acai berry capsules (sprinkled in)
A splash of almond milk

Toppings:
1 tbsp flax seeds
Handful organic dried white mulberries
Tbsp sunflower seeds
Handful fresh blueberries

Method

Simply put all the ingredients (except the toppings) into a high-speed blender and blend until a smooth, ice cream forms. The blueberries and banana being frozen will cause the blender to turn it to ice cream.

Spoon into a bowl and add the toppings.

Enjoy!

Love,
Lauren

Buckwheat Waffles

GF Waffles

I have this problem at the moment: I want nothing more than to have a lie-in on the weekend but my belly wakes me up and tells me it needs food! So I left my husband in bed this morning and went to make us both some yummy, guilt-free waffles. This is a variation on the last batch of waffles I made (which you can see here), as these ones are not vegan. They are, however, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free and simply delicious 🙂 fun to make with the kids too. (The cleaning of the waffle iron is not such fun though!)

Ingredients

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 and half tbsp coconut palm sugar
1 and half tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt (I used Himalayan)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup almond milk (can also use coconut milk, hemp milk or oat milk)
4 tbsp vegan margarine or coconut oil, melted but at room temperature
2 eggs
1 tbsp maple syrup

Toppings of choice: I used maple syrup and almond butter

Method

Preheat the waffle iron as you want it extra hot.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl: buckwheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinnamon.

In another bowl mix the wet ingredients and whisk together: milk, eggs, margarine and maple.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix really well, making sure all flour is incorporated from the bottom of the bowl.

Pour the batter onto the hot waffle iron and leave for around 10 minutes, or until you can see they are crunchy on the outside. This recipe makes 4 waffles, and my iron holds two at a time so I put the first two in the oven on a low heat to keep them warm while I made the next two.

Enjoy!

Love,
Lauren

Blueberry Chia Pudding with Coconut Cream

Blueberry Chia Pudding Coconut Cream

Antioxidants, fibre, protein, omega 3, all plant-based and easy to make. This recipe needs no further introduction!

Ingredients

Chia Pudding
250ml almond milk
Handful frozen blueberries
1 ripe banana
1 tsp maple
1 acai berry capsule
1 tsp maca powder
1 tbsp almond or peanut butter
4 tbsp chia seeds

Coconut Cream
1 mini tub of coconut cream or the cream from the top of one can of coconut milk, chilled in fridge overnight
1 tsp maple syrup

Toppings
I used granola and blueberries, you can choose whatever you like!

Method

Put all the chia pudding ingredients apart from the chia seeds into the blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a tall cup and mix in the chia seeds. Cover with cling film and refrigerate overnight. At this time you can put the coconut cream in the fridge also.

The next morning, take the coconut cream out the fridge, scoop it into a bowl and whisk for 3-5 minutes until stiff. Add in the maple and stir gently.

Stir the chia pudding in its glass, then pour however much you want into a bowl, mason jar or glass, top with the coconut cream and toppings.

Enjoy!

Love,
Lauren