Homemade ice lollies

I love smoothies for the fact that I can pack them full of fresh spinach and my two boys just drink it all like it’s the biggest treat. NOW- ice lollies are even better than a smoothie!!! So why not make them the most nutritious treats you can!

I have four ice lolly recipes I’d like to share with you. They make a great refreshing snack for both kids and adults and are quick and easy to make.

I try to use organic products where I can and in their raw unheated form- they don’t carry harmful chemicals and pesticides and have a lot higher nutritional content. However they tend to be significantly more expensive, so I’d encourage you to make your own choices on these- according to what your wallet says:) . I decided to only write “organic” on the foods that I really think should be consumed organic.

Kiwi and Avocado Ice Lollies

• 2 ripe kiwis, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 ripe avocado
• generous handful of organic spinach
• 1 Tbs of honey (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp of Maca powder (optional)

Process in a small food processor/ chopper until smooth. If using a blender add some filtered water and blend. Fill your ice lolly moulds and freeze.

 

Raspberry Ice Lollies

• 1 cup of natural goat’s yoghurt or natural organic yoghurt
• 1 1/4 cup of fresh or frozen organic raspberries
• 1 Tbs of honey (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp of Maca powder (optional)

Process in a small food processor/ chopper until smooth. If using a blender add some coconut milk (or other milk of your preferance) and blend. Fill your ice lolly moulds and freeze.

Tropical Ice Lollies

• 1 handful of organic spinach leaves
• 1 handful of organic swiss chard leaves
• 1 Tbs raw organic coconut oil (it has a slight coconut flavour, which I like but use non raw if preferred)
• 1 tsp of Maca powder
• 1 tsp of Spirulina powder
• 2 rings/slices of fresh ripe pineapple
• 200ml -300ml of filtered water or coconut water
• (I use pineapple to make ice lolly sweeter- but always taste before freezing and add honey if necessary)

Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer into your ice lolly moulds and freeze.

The third recipe, was inspired by a number of chocolate drink recipes created by David “Avocado” Wolfe. A lot of his recipes can be found on you tube and I recommend to try them out!

Chocolate Ice Lollies

• 1 Tbs of raw organic cacao nibs
• 1 1/2 Tbs raw organic cacao (if using normal cocoa add 2 Tbs)
• 1 tsp Maca powder
• 1 Tbs raw organic coconut oil
• 1 Tbs shelled hemp seeds
• 1 tsp good quality vanilla essence
• 5 cashew nuts
• 1 Tbs of honey
• pinch of sea salt
• 200 ml of filtered water or cooled green tea

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer into ice lolly moulds and freeze.

 

Healthy- cereal free breakfast

Disclaimer: The information written below is based on my personal research and experience.

I wanted to share my usual breakfast idea with you.  A while ago my family went gluten-free after I realised that my youngest son couldn’t tolerate gluten – even through breastmilk. It turned out to work brilliantly for us and after we cut it out we learnt that gluten was causing us a fair few aches, indigestions and causing my skin problems. Nowadays gluten free breakfasts are easy – you just buy gluten-free cereal! It tastes just as good, in most cases is organic and in most cases has less sugar added. More recently we have been trying to significantly reduce our sugar and carbohydrate intake and concentrate on a high (HEALTHY!!!) fat diet. This involves a lot of nuts and seeds, avocados, organic or grass fed fatty meat, fish and lots of veggies and fruit.

The problem with carbohydrates is that they don’t give us much nutrition and once we consume carbohydrate rich foods, our body turns them into sugar giving us quick burst of energy – followed by a sugar low and feeling hungry again. What’s more, our bodies can’t process the big amounts of sugar we feed them so they store it in fat. One of the reasons our bodies produce fat is to protect us from the chemicals we consume (I mean the nasty food additives mostly found in all processed foods) – our bodies will produce fat to surround the chemicals that are dangerous to us – sugar counts as one of those chemicals. Another reason for our bodies to produce fat would be if we go hungry on regular basis, fat would be produced to keep us from starving. On the other hand, healthy fats provide us with stable energy without the extreme highs and lows making us feel satisfied for longer and because we are avoiding sugars and other chemicals, there is no need for our bodies to produce extra amounts of fat. Interestingly, when we consume healthy fat -our bodies don’t store it, they use it up as energy.

Once I tried to cut out all pasta, potatoes, rice and grain from our weekly menu I realised how a typical diet focuses on carbs and makes it difficult to adjust and change. However, with time, research and listening to my body I came up with plenty of alternatives and we are doing pretty well staying off carbs and sugar.

Today I would like to share a very quick and easy breakfast “recipe” with you. If you are not looking to cut out carbs and sugar from your diet- I hope you will find this as a nice occasional change to cereal and toast:). I am using a banana, which contains some amounts of carbohydrates and natural sugars, but since it’s a natural food I can’t see it causing harm and if you wish – you can leave banana out. I also add (organic) full fat natural yoghurt.

Why seeds and nuts?

Chia seeds- are full of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, manganese and they contain omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.

Sunflower seeds- are full of vitamin E, copper, selenium, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium and others.

Almonds- contain vitamin E, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, copper, fibre, biotin.

Walnuts- are full of omega 3 fats, copper, manganese and biotin.

Dried coconut- contain B vitamins, potassium, copper, zinc, magnesium, iron and calcium.

They are all good for our hearts and protect us from cancer. They are full of healthy fat so keep us satisfied for longer.  Definitely a good way to start a day!

You can put it all together in any way you wish.

Sliced banana with the yoghurt in the middle…

A whole banana with yoghurt on a plate…

yoghurt topped with chopped banana, nuts and seeds…

My children love to sprinkle their own seeds on top and I am happy that they are learning to make healthy food choices :).

Banana and seeds breakfast

• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:                                                                                       

• banana
• natural yoghurt (preferably full fat-organic)                 
• 2-4 tbs sunflower seeds
• 2-4 tbs flaked/sliced almonds
• 2-4 tbs chopped walnuts
• 2-4 tbs flaked or desiccated coconut
• 1 tbs chia seeds

Directions:

According to your preferences: chop or slice the banana into a bowl or onto a plate. Add the desired amount of natural yoghurt and sprinkle seeds on the top. Enjoy your healthy, energising breakfast!

Grey English sky outside my kitchen window. Where are those beautiful rays of sunshine lighting up my windowsill gone??

To keep our spirits up we turn to juicing! February is our month of going back to healthy eating and juicing helps to get lots of vitamins in- in one go!

As the Polish saying goes: “In healthy body lives a healthy spirit” so today we are trying to make “red juice”. The ingredients are in the picture below PLUS 1/4 peeled lemon (only remembered lemon after everything turned into juice).

Apples and carrots added sweetness to the taste, so the little ones seemed to love it. I keep thinking that even if they only drink 5 little sips- it’s 5 little sips packed with vitamins and living enzymes!

Cheers!

A pretend birthday

There are some days that you just wish it was your birthday…at least 3 year old Jonah is having A LOT of those days. He started asking about his birthday in September and he was born in March! He is very patient, doesn’t get upset, but he just really wishes his birthday would come sooner. So on Friday he asked the usual morning question: “is it my birthday today?” and I replied “Nope, but in 35days it will be!!!”, to which his response was “Awww..is that soon?”. His expression was so full of hope that I quickly managed to save the moment by saying: “We have to wait a bit longer for your real birthday, but actually I just realised that today is your PRETEND BIRTHDAY!”

And we had the most exciting day!

We picked a recipe for healthy carrot cupcakes and got mixing…

and 30 mins later…

it turns out that when it’s pretend birthday anybody can pick a candle and blow it!

and don’t forget about frothy milk with cinnamon sprinkles!

I wanted to try this recipe for a while…if you’re looking for a healthy cupcake recipe this one is definitely worth a try. It uses brown rice syrup without any sugar and you can add any gluten-free flour you wish. We used organic wholemeal spelt flour (spelt does contain some gluten) that we got from our trip to a local windmill in the summer.

If it’s YOUR PRETEND BIRTHDAY today we hope you have a lots of fun!

Birthday red juice…

Ahhh… nice beetroot, carrot and orange juice that my little boys have lovingly prepared for me. A little pick me up after a long and crazy day :)

Green Super Smoothie

We have a favourite smoothie recipe that is great for breakfasts, snacks and as a dessert (maybe not all on one day). I use a pineapple and banana as a base and sometimes if I happen to have oranges and extra time I squeeze some orange juice otherwise I use filtered water. Pineapple, banana and orange give a great child friendly flavour and allows you to put all sorts of healthy goodies in. Then I add fresh spinach, as much as I can get away with, which usually is about two very generous handfuls!

This is the last of my own grown spinach from the garden for this year, it’s been attacked by bugs and slugs, overgrown by weeds, so I picked what I could and left the rest for my hens to enjoy.

…only one modest handful this time…huh…but one handful of fresh organic spinach is better than no spinach at all :)

SO…

…that’s the smoothie part and for the “super” part I add: ground flaxseed, ground hemp seeds, spirulina powder, maca powder, coconut oil. Sometimes I add all of these, sometimes just a selection. Apart from coconut oil, which adds a tropical twist to the smoothie – you can’t taste other ingredients and children love it.

I actually put the spinach in last otherwise the spirulina and maca powders end up all over the walls of the jug and don’t mix into the smoothie.

• Servings: 2 adults or 1 adult and 2 children
• Time: 10minutes
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

1 large ripe banana

2 fresh pineapple rings

1-2 generous handfuls of fresh spinach

300 mls orange juice or filtered water (add more liquid if you don’t like a thick smoothie)

Optional (use all of these, none of these or pick and choose) :

1tbs raw organic coconut oil

1-2 tsp freshly ground flaxseeds

1-2 tsp ground hemp seeds

1tsp of spirulina powder

1tsp of maca powder

Directions:

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until desired consistency (my children like it smooth). I tend to put the liquid in first and loose spinach last, and I use my fruit chilled. You can freeze pineapple and banana in chunks and blend it from frozen, for thicker- ice cream like texture.

Hope you’ll enjoy your vitamin, mineral, protein and omega 3 rich tasty drink!